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be kept until he pay the sums aforementioned with your fees, or until he be discharged by the said or otherwise by order of law. Hereof fail not, and make true return of this writ and your doings thereon to our next court of common pleas to be holden at in our said county of

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SEC. 13. Justices of the peace shall have power to issue writs of replevin where the goods and chattels to be replevied are of twenty dollars or less in value, if they were taken, attached or detained in the town in which the justice dwells who issues the writ. They are also empowered to try the same and to award execution therein, adhering in their proceedings, as near as may be, to the forms herein prescribed.

SECTION

An Act concerning Waste.

1. Tenant for life, &c., committing waste,
to forfeit the place wasted.
2. Any joint tenant, &c., committing
waste on the estate holden in joint
tenancy, &c., to forfeit double the
amount of the waste-how to be re-
covered.

3. Writs of estrepement when and by

SECTION

whom to be issued, to whom directed, and how to be served.

4. Adverse party to be notified before writ of estrepement to be issued.

5. Court issuing writ of estrepement may require bond of the person applying for the same.

6. Writs of estrepement when returnable.

It is enacted by the General Assembly, as follows:

SECTION 1. If any person who shall be seized of any real estate for the term of his own life, or for the life or lives of any other person or persons, or as a tenant for years, shall commit or suffer any waste on such estate, he shall forfeit his estate in the place so wasted, and double the amount of the waste so done or suffered; to be recovered in an action of waste by the person entitled to the next estate in remainder or reversion, in the place so wasted.

SEC. 2. If any joint tenant, tenant in common or coparcener, shall commit any waste on any estate by him holden in joint tenancy, tenancy in common, or coparcenary, without the consent of the other joint tenants, tenants in common, or coparceners, he shall forfeit double the amount of the waste so done, to be recovered by the other joint tenants, tenants in common, or coparceners, to their own use; and it shall be lawful for any one or more of the other joint tenants, tenants in common, or coparceners, to commence an action for the same in the name of all the joint tenants, tenants in common,

any

or coparceners, not named as defendants therein; and if person named as plaintiff without his consent shall neglect to appear after being duly notified, in such manner as the court shall direct, his name shall be stricken from the writ and pleadings, and the others shall have a right to prosecute the same to final judgment and execution, in their own names and for their own use.

SEC. 3. The supreme court in any county, and each of the justices thereof in vacation, on the application of the plaintiff, in an action of ejectment, trespass and ejectment, partition or waste, are hereby empowered, under the provisions following, to issue a writ of estrepement, directed to the sheriff or to his deputies, of the county in which the estate in question may be, requiring him to stay all the waste on the estate that shall be described in such writ of estrepement; and the sheriff or his deputy, who shall be charged with the service of such writ, shall have power to stay all waste, as shall be directed in such writ, and to take such aid as shall be necessary for that purpose.

SEC. 4. Upon the application of any party for a writ of estrepement, said court or justice, before issuing the same, shall cause the party whose interests may be affected thereby to be notified of the pendency of such application, in such manner and mode as said court or justice may deem proper, to the end that the party so to be affected by, as well as the party applying for said writ, may be heard in the premises. And upon such hearing, the said court or justice may, in their discretion, issue or refuse to issue said writ, in the same manner as courts of equity grant or refuse to grant injunctions in like cases.

SEC. 5. The said court or justice may, on said hearing and before the issuing of said writ, require of the party applying for the same, bond with sufficient surety, and in such sum as said court or justice may prescribe, to make good to the party whose interests may be affected by said writ, all loss and damage which he may suffer by reason of the issuing of said writ; if said court or justice, in their discretion, judge that the circumstances of the case or the rights of the parties require such bond to be given.

SEC. 6. If such writ of estrepement shall be issued by the court, it shall be returnable at such time as the court shall direct; and if such writ shall be issued by a justice of said court, it shall be returnable to the next term of said court within and for the county in which the estate lies, which is described therein.

An Act relating to Dower and the assignment thereof.

SECTION

1. Widow to be endowed.

2. How to be endowed of things entire.
3. When and by whom dower shall be as-
signed--when more than one parcel
of land, dower may be set off in one
only.

4. Until dower be assigned, widow may
remain in mansion-house.

SECTION

9. Courts of probate may set off dower on the joint application of all persons interested.

10.

11.

12.

13.

5. On refusal to set off dower after de-
mand, writ of dower may be brought.
6. Judgment in dower to set forth the
manner in which dower shall be as-
signed-party aggrieved at judgment
in court of common pleas may appeal
to supreme court.
7. On final judgment for dower, commis-
sioners to be appointed to set it off-
proceedings of commissioners-report 16.
of, to be recorded.

8. Action of dower not to abate by death
of defendant.

14.

15.

In such case court of probate to decree in what manner dower is to be set off; appeal from decree to supreme court. Upon final decree commissioners to be appointed to carry it into effect. Tenant in dower not to commit waste, on painof for feiture, but to keep estate in repair.

Jointure to be a bar to dower, but may be waived.

Conveyances in lieu of dower to cease in certain cases.

Widow evicted of her jointure lands to be endowed.

Widows may bequeath crops-fences erected by, may be removed within six months after widows' decease.

It is enacted by the General Assembly, as follows:

SECTION 1. The widow of any person dying intestate, or otherwise, shall be endowed of one full and equal third part of all the lands, tenements and hereditaments, whereof her husband, or any other to his use, was seized of an estate of inheritance, at any time during the intermarriage, to which she shall not have relinquished her right of dower by deed, except in the cases provided for in the thirteenth section of this act.

SEC. 2. Of inheritances that are entire, where no division can be made by metes and bounds, so that a woman can be endowed of the thing itself, and of wood lands, she shall be endowed in a special and certain manner, as of a third part of the rents, issues, growth or profits thereof, to be computed and ascertained in manner as is by this act directed.

SEC. 3. The heir or person having the next immediate estate of freehold in all or any of the lands, tenements or hereditaments which belonged to the deceased during the intermarriage, whereof the widow is dowable, may in writing and under his hand, assign and set off to such widow her dower or just third part of and in all such lands, tenements and hereditaments, according to the provisions of this act, at any time after the decease of the husband; and where dower is legally demandable in more than one lot or parcel of land belonging to the same person, such assignment need not be of a part of each lot or parcel, but may be together in one lot, as the interest and convenience of the widow and the heir or person having the next immediate estate of freehold shall re

quire; and if the tenant in possession have but a term of years in such lands, he may join with the persons having the next estate of freehold in the same, in assigning and setting off dower as aforesaid.

SEC. 4. Until such dower be assigned and until she elect to receive her jointure in lieu of dower, according to the thirteenth section of this act, it shall be lawful for any widow to remain and continue in the mansion-house, and the messuage thereto belonging, without being chargeable to pay the heir any rent for the same; provided she bring her writ of dower within twelve months after the probate of the will or the granting of letters of administration on her husband's estate. SEC. 5. If any person empowered according to the third section of this act, shall neglect for one month after demand made to assign and set off to any widow her dower in all the lands, tenements and hereditaments in his possession, of which she is dowable, or shall assign and set off less in value than the widow is entitled to, or in a manner not consistent with the provisions and true intent of this act, in either of these cases, such widow may sue for and recover her dower, by writ of dower, to be brought against the tenant in possession or the tenant of the next immediate estate of freehold.

SEC. 6. Whenever judgment for dower shall be rendered by any court of common pleas in favor of a plaintiff in an action of dower, the said judgment shall set forth the manner in which the plaintiff shall be endowed; and either party aggrieved by such judgment may appeal therefrom to the next term of the supreme court in the same county. If no such appeal be prayed in open court within two days after such judgment, the same shall be final and shall annul the dower before that time set off and assigned the plaintiff in the case, if any had been set off and assigned.

SEC. 7. When final judgment for dower shall be rendered in any action of dower in favor of the plaintiff, the court rendering the same shall appoint three disinterested men, who shall be under oath (to be administered by said court or by any justice of the peace or public notary) equally and impartially to set forth by metes and bounds, or to ascertain in the special manner pointed out in such judgment, the dower of the plaintiff, and also the damages sustained by the plaintiff by detention thereof after demand therefor; said men shall appoint time and place to meet the parties in the said action and give them notice thereof; and at such time and place, notwithstanding the absence of either or both of said parties, and unless good cause is shown, proceed to discharge their

duties and make report of the same, with a plat of the premises and of the dower set off, if set off by metes and bounds, as soon as may be to the court appointing them, under their hands; and no sufficient cause to the contrary being shown, said court shall confirm said report, and enter up judgment according to the same, and issue a writ of execution for said damages, and to put the plaintiff in possession of her dower or perception of rents and profits, as the case may require: provided that execution shall not be issued until after the plaintiff produces to the court, or clerk if the court be adjourned, a certificate that the judgment of said court, confirming said report, has been duly recorded in the office of the town clerk of the town in which the premises lie; the expense of which shall make part of the cost in the action of dower.

SEC. 8. No action of dower shall abate by the death of the defendant named therein, where the defendant is tenant of the freehold, if the property passes by devise or descent from him; but such death being suggested, the heir or devisee shall be summoned to appear at the same or at the next term in the discretion of the court where the action is pending, and take upon him the defence of the suit; and the suit shall proceed against him in the same manner as if he had been the original defendant.

SEC. 9. Any court of probate in this state which shall have granted letters of administration or letters testamentary on the estate of any deceased person, shall have power, upon the joint application of the widow of the deceased, and all the heirs at law or devisees having the next immediate estate of freehold, and all persons interested in all or any of the lands, tenements or hereditaments, lying within this state, which belonged to the deceased during his intermarriage, whereof such widow is dowable, to cause her dower therein to be assigned and set off to her.

SEC. 10. When such an application shall be made to such court of probate, said court upon hearing the parties thereto shall, in the first instance, decree in which manner the dower ought to be assigned in the premises described in such application; whether by metes and bounds or in some special and certain manner as set forth in the second section of this act; and any person aggrieved by such decree may appeal therefrom to the next term of the supreme court to be holden in the same county. But if no appeal be made within the time prescribed by law, or if the parties in writing within that time waive their right to appeal, then said decree shall be final.

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