Commitment.

Execution against person when issued

Afidavits.

in the case, and shall enforce by order the collection thereof from such party or parties as ought to pay the same.

ARTICLE IV.

Executions Against the Person.

SEC. 544. An execution against the person of the judgment debtor shall require the officer to arrest such debtor, and commit him to the jail of the county until he pay the judgment or be discharged according to law.

SEC. 545. An execution against the person of the debtor may be issued upon any judgment for the payment of money:

First, When the judgment debtor has removed or begun to remove any of his property out of the jurisdiction of the court, with intent to prevent the collection of the money due on the judgment.

Second, When he has property, rights in action, evidences of debt or some interest or stock in some corporation or company which he fraudulently conceals with the like intent.

Third, When he has assigned or disposed of all or any part of his property, or rights in action, or has converted the same into money with intent to defraud his creditors, or with the intent to prevent such property from being taken in

execution.

Fourth, When he fraudulently contracted the debt or incurred the obligation upon which the judgment was rendered.

Fifth, When he was arrested on an order before judg ment and has not been discharged as an insolvent debtor, or the order has not been set aside as improperly made.

SEC. 546. An execution against the person of the debtor, except as prescribed in the next succeeding section, can be issued only when the same is allowed by the supreme court, the district court or probate court, or any judge of either upon being satisfied by the affidavit of the judgment creditor or his attorney, and such other evidence as may be presented, of the existence of one or more of the particulars mentioned in the preceding section.

SEC. 547. In all cases in which the judgment debtor was arrested before judgment, and has not been released from imprisonment by an application for relief, as an insolvent debtor, and where the order for such arrest has not been adjudged improper, an execution against the person of such judgment debtor may issue of course.

SEC. 548. Any person taken in execution as aforesaid, shall be discharged by delivering or setting off to the officers serving the same, if issued from a court of record, real or personal property, sufficient to satisfy the judgment and costs, for which the writ is issued.

SEC. 549. The death of a person, under arrest in an action, does not satisfy the judgment; but an execution may issue thereon as if no arrest had been made.

SEC. 550. If a person imprisoned under an order of arrest, made before judgment, is not charged in execution, within ten days after judgment, he shall be discharged from such imprisonment.

or.

Insolvent debt

Discharge.

Death

Limitation.]

SEC. 551. In cases of commitment under this article, or Inability. upon arrest before or after judgment in civil cases, the person imprisoned, in case of his inability to perform the act or to endure the imprisonment, may be discharged from imprisonment by the court or judge committing him, or the court or judge thereof, in which the judgment was or might be rendered, on such terms as may be just.

Executions for the delivery of real and personal Property.

SEC. 552. If the execution be for the delivery of the Satisfaction. possession of real or personal property, it shall require the officer to deliver the same, particularly describing the property, to the party entitled thereto, and may, at the same time, require the officer to satisfy any costs or damages, recovered in the same judgment out of the goods and chattels of the party against whom it was rendered, and for the want. of such goods and chattels, then out of the lands and tenements, and in this respect, it shall be deemed an execution against the property.

SEC. 553. When the judgment is not for the recovery

of money or real property, the same may be enforced by attachment, by the court rendering judgment, upon motion made, or by a rule of the court upon the defendant; but, in either case, notice of the motion or a service of a copy of the rule shall be made on the defendant, a reasonable time. before the order of attachment is made.

Judgment before Justices of the Peace.

SEC. 554. In all cases in which a judgment shall be rendered by a justice of the peace, the party in whose favor the judgment shall be rendered, may file a transcript of such judgment, in the office of the clerk of the district court of the county in which the judgment was rendered, and thereupon, the clerk shall, on the day on which the same shall be filed, enter the case on the execution docket, together with the amount of the judgment and time of filing the transcript.

SEC. 555. Such judgment, if the transcript shall be filed in term time, shall have a lien on the real estate of the judgment debtor, from the day of filing; if filed in vacation, shall have a like lien from the first day of the next term of the court, in the same manner and to the same extent as if the judgment had been rendered in the district court.

SEC. 556. Execution may be issued thereon, to the sheriff, by the clerk of the court, in the same manner as if the judgment had been taken in court, and the sheriff shall execute and return the same as other executions, and in case of sale of real estate, his proceedings shall be examined and approved by the court as in other cases.

SEC. 557. The justice of the peace, shall certify on the transcript the amount, if any, paid on such judgment. The costs of the transcript, and filing of the same, and the entry of the case on the execution docket, shall be paid by the party filing the same, and not taxed to the other party.

TITLE XXIII.

Miscellaneous Provisions.-Offer to Compromise.

SEC. 558. The defendant, in an action for the recovery

H

of money only, may, at any time before the trial, serve upon compremies. the plaintiff or his attorney, an offer in writing, to allow judgment to be taken against him for the sum specified therein. If the plaintiff accept the offer an give notice thereof to the defendant or his attorney, within five days after the offer was served, the offer and an affidavit that the notice of acceptance was delivered in the time limited, may be filed by the plaintiff, or the defendant may file the acceptance with a copy of the offer, verified by affidavit; and, in either case, the offer and acceptance shall be noted in the journal, and judgment shall be rendered accordingly. If the notice of acceptance be not given in the period limited, the offer shall be deemed withdrawn, and shall not be given. in evidence, or mentioned on the trial. If the plaintiff fails to obtain judgment for more than was offered by the defendant, he shall pay the defendant's costs from the time of the offer. The making of an offer pursuant to the provisions contained in this section, shall not be a cause for a continuance of an action or a postponement of the trial.

Submitting a Controversy.

SEC. 559. Parties to a question, which might be the subject of a civil action, may, without action, agree upon a case containing the facts upon which the controversy depends, and present a submission of the same to any court, which would have jurisdiction if an action had been brought. But it must appear by affidavit, that the controversy is real, and the proceedings in good faith to determine the rights of the parties. The court shall thereupon hear and determine the case, and render judgment as if an action were pending.

SEC. 560. The case, the submission and the judgment Record, shall constitute the record.

SEC. 561. The judgment shall be with costs, may be enforced, and shall be subject to reversal, in the same manner as if it had been rendered in an action, unless otherwise provided in the submission.

Offer to Confess Judgment.

SEC. 562. After an action for the recovery of money

Bovernal

is brought, the defendant may offer in court to confess judgment for part of the amount claimed, or part of the causes involved in the action. Whereupon, if the plaintiff, being present, refuse to accept such confession of judgment in full of his demands against the defendant in the action, or, having had such notice that the offer would be made, of its amount, and of the time of making it, as the court shall deem reasonable, fail to attend, and on the trial do not recover more than was so offered to be confessed, such plaintiff shall pay all the costs of the defendant incurred after the offer. The offershall not be deemed to be an admission of the cause of action, or the amount to which the plaintiff is entitled, nor be given in evidence upon the trial. SEC. 553. Before an action for the recovery of money is brought against any person, he may go into the court of the county of his residence, or of that in which the person having the cause of action resides, which would have jurisdiction of the action, and offer to confess judgment, in favor of such person, for a specified sum, on such cause of action. Whereupon, if such person, having had such notice that the offer would be made, of its own amount, and of the time and place of making it, as the court shall deem reasonable, do not attend to accept the confes-ion, or attending, refuse to accept it, and should afterwards commence an action upon such cause, and not recover more than the amount so offered to be confessed, he shall pay all the costs of the action, and on the trial thereof, the offer shall not be deemed to be an admission of the cause of action, or amount to which the plaintiff is entitled, nor be given in evidence.

Proceedings by Sureties.

SEC. 564. A surety may maintain an action against his principal, to compel him to discharge the debt or liabilty, for which the surety is bound, after the same has become due.

SEC. 565. A surety may maintain an action against his principal, to obtain indemnity against the debt or liability for which he is bound, before it is due, whenever any of the grounds exist, upon which, by the provisions of