United States Statutes at Large/Volume 5/28th Congress/1st Session/Chapter 100
Chap. C.—An Act supplementary to an act entitled “An act to regulate arrest on mesne process in the District of Columbia,” approved August first, eighteen hundred and forty-two.
Act of Aug. 1, 1842, ch. 108.
1853, ch. 40.
No person to be held to bail or imprisoned in a civil action, when the debt is less than $50, &c.
1845, ch. 2.
Proviso.Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That no person shall hereafter be held to bail or imprisoned in any civil action in the District of Columbia, in any case where the debt or claim, exclusive of interest and costs, is less than fifty dollars, and in cases where he may have been, or shall hereafter be, held to bail under the act, to which this is a supplement; and that every person who at the time of the passage of this act, shall be held in prison or prison bounds, in any civil action, except in the cases hereinbefore mentioned, shall thereupon be immediately discharged: Provided, That if any plaintiff in any civil action after judgment shall have been obtained by him or her, shall make oath according to law, that the defendant or defendants has or have conveyed away, lessened, or disposed of his or their property, rights, or credits, or is, or are about to remove, or hath or have removed, his or their property from this District, as he or she believes with intent thereby to hinder or delay the recovery or payment of his debts, the clerk of the court of the county in which such judgment shall have been rendered, shall thereupon issue a capias ad satisfaciendum in the same manner as though this act had not been passed: and upon the arrest of any such defendant or defendants under such capias ad satisfaciendum, he or they may be brought by habeas corpus before the court of such county, if in term time, and before one of the judges thereof in vacation, and may call upon the plaintiff or plaintiffs, to show cause why he or they, the said defendant or defendants shall not be discharged from said imprisonment; and upon such notice, either party may demand a trial by jury; and thereupon the said court or judge shall direct an issue or issues to be framed upon the affidavit so filed, and shall cause a jury to be impannelled and sworn to try such issue or issues, and if the finding of the jury upon such issue or issues shall be for the plaintiff, such defendant or defendants shall be thereupon remanded to prison, and be dealt with as though this act had not been passed:Proviso. And provided further, that nothing in this act shall be construed to authorize the custody or imprisonment of any female person on civil process, nor to any non-resident for any debt contracted out of the District of Columbia:Proviso. Provided, That nothing contained in this act shall prevent the execution of process already in the hands of the marshal and not yet executed.
Approved, June 17, 1844.