CHAPTER 222

JUSTICES' JURISDICTION IN CIVIL CASES FOR DEBT

AN ACT to amend Chapter 121 of the Revised Code of the State of Delaware, relating to the Jurisdiction of the Justices of Peace in Civil Cases of Debt, by repealing 9022. Sec. 19 thereof, and by substituting in lieu thereof a new section.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Delaware in General Assembly met: That Chapter 121, Article 6 of the Revised Code of the State of Delaware, be and the same is hereby amended by re- pealing all of 4022, Sec. 19 of said Chapter, and substituting in lieu thereof the following to be styled 4022, Sec. 19.

4022. Sec. 19. NINE MONTHS' STAY; WHEN GRANTED; SE- CURITY; FORM OF; EFFECT OF SECURITY; HOW PROCEEDED ON; STAY WHEN DEFENDANTS ARE NOT ALL FREEHOLDERS; SUPERSEDEAS; WHEN: If any defendant against whom a judgment shall be given for more than five dollars, besides costs, or any freeholder in relation to whom affidavit is made as in the next preceding section, shall within five days after the giving such judgment, or filing such affidavit, give sufficient security to pay the judgment, there shall be a stay of execution thereon for nine months from that time. Such security shall be entered on the docket, thus: "On the Day of.... A D 19...., A. B., (or A. B. and C. D., if two) be- comes surety that this judgment shall be fully satisfied"; and the said entry shall be signed by the surety or sureties.

This entry, and the entry prescribed in the next preceding section, shall be an obligation of record, and shall oblige the surety or sureties, or their executors or administrators, jointly, or severally, to pay the judgment to which such entry refers, and after the expiration of said stay of execution the judgment may be executed and enforced against the surety or sureties, their executors or administrators, without an action of debt, or a scire facias being first maintained or issued thereupon.

Whenever a defendant or defendants in any such judgment shall have obtained a stay of execution as aforesaid, the plain- tiff or plaintiffs in such judgment, may file a duly certified transcript of the docket entries of said judgment, with the Prothonotary of the Superior Court, in the County where such judgment was given, and the Prothonotary shall enter in his judgment docket, the names of the parties, the amount of the judgment, and by what justice rendered, the time from which interest runs and the amount of the costs, with the true date of such filing and entry; and such judgment so transferred shall from that date become and be a lien on all the real estate of the said defendant or defendants, as well as of the surety or sureties, in the County, in the same manner and as fully as judgments rendered in said Superior Court are liens, and may, after the expiration of said stay of execution, be executed and enforced in the same way as judgments of said Court; and if any such judgment shall be lawfully assigned to a joint debtor or surety, the assignee shall have the benefit of this Section. If any defendant, in a judgment against several, shall not be a freeholder of the County, the foregoing provision for nine months' stay on giving security, shall apply, although there may be other defendants who are freeholders. If in any case execution shall have issued before the security is given as aforesaid, the same shall, on giving the security within the five days aforesaid, be superseded and the proceedings thereon quashed.

Approved April 2, A. D. 1925.