§ 10-13-28 Examination of tort debtor
– Assignment of property – Administration of oath. –
Upon the receipt of any petition of any poor tort debtor under the provisions
of § 10-13-27, the justice to whom the petition shall be addressed shall
fix a time and place for the hearing of the petition, and shall issue a
citation, directed to the committing creditor or to his or her attorney of
record in the suit, or if the committing creditor be deceased, to the legal
representative of the deceased creditor, which citation shall be served upon
one of the persons to whom it is directed at least six (6) days before the
return day thereof. Upon the return of the citation duly served, the justice
shall cause the petitioner to be brought before him or her upon habeas corpus
at the time and place named in the citation, and either then or at such other
time as the justice shall appoint, shall proceed to examine the petitioner and
to hear the evidence which may be properly adduced in favor of and against the
granting of the prayer of the petition, and if it shall be made to appear that
the petitioner has no property, rights, or credits with which to pay prison
charges, or which is not exempt by law from attachment, and that the debtor has
made an assignment to the warden in the manner prescribed in § 10-13-7, if
the justice shall be of the opinion that the petitioner can truly take the oath
prescribed in § 10-13-8, the justice may administer to the petitioner the
oath, and the like certificate shall be issued thereof, and the certificate
shall have the like effect in all respects with reference to the discharge of
the petitioner from the correctional institution, and the issue of execution,
or of alias or pluries execution, upon the judgment shall be in the form and
with the like effect, as if the petitioner had been entitled to and admitted to
take the poor debtor's oath under the provisions of §§ 10-13-1 –
10-13-26.
(G.L. 1896, ch. 261, § 5; C.P.A. 1905, § 1159; G.L. 1909, ch. 327,
§ 5; G.L. 1923, ch. 378, § 2; G.L. 1938, ch. 564, § 2; impl. am.
P.L. 1956, ch. 3721, § 1; G.L. 1956, § 10-13-29.)