Plaintiff to file complaint, &c. Defendant shall appear. Issue to stand for trial. Summons now in hands of officers to be returned, &c. Proviso. issue. The officer to whom the summons is addressed shall note on it the day of its delivery to him, and shall execute it at least ten days before the beginning of the term to which it shall be returnable, and shall return it on the first day of the term. SEC. 3. The plaintiff'shall file his complaint in the Clerk's office on or before the third day of the term to which the action is brought, otherwise the suit shall, on motion, be dismissed by the Court at the cost of the plaintiff. SEC. 4. The defendant shall appear and demur, plead or answer at the same term to which the summons shall be returnable, otherwise the plaintiff may have judgment by default, as is now allowed by law. SEC. 5. The plaintiff shall join in the demurrer or reply to the answer at the same term to which such demurrer or answer may be filed: and that the issues, whether of law or fact, shall stand for trial at the next term succeeding the term at which the pleadings are completed. SEC. 6. That all writs of summons in civil actions now in the hands of the Sheriff or Clerk, shall be returned by said officers to the next term of the Superior Court, and such writs, together with all writs of summons in civil actions. heretofore returned in which no final judgment has been rendered, shall be placed by the Clerk on the Docket of the Superior Court at the next ensuing term, and the pleadings in such actions shall be conducted according to the rules prescribed in this act: Provided, That all civil actions in which issues have been joined, shall stand for trial at spring Further proviso term eighteen hundred and sixty-nine: Provided further, That issues of law or of fact, which have been joined in pursuance of law and ordinances heretofore passed and known as "stay laws," shall be considered as having been illegally joined, and all such actions shall be placed upon the appearance dockets at spring term, eighteen hundred and sixty nine, by the Clerks of Superior Courts, and the pleadings therein shall be made up an issue joined at said term as provided in this act, unless in any County the time of said term shall have passed, in which case such action shali be placed upon the trial docket at fall term, eighteen hundred and sixty-nine. SEC. 7. No sale of any property, real or personal, under When sale is valid. executions issued from any Court in this State, shall be valid to pass title, unless the property, whether real or personal, shall bring three-fourths of the value thereof, and on return of such executions, the Sheriff or other officer shall make return of the amount bid for the same, and whether the amount was equal to three-fourths of such value. property ascertained SEC. 8. In order to ascertain the value of the property How value of exposed to sale, under the preceding section, it shall be the duty of the creditor and debtor each to choose one appraiser, who shall be a citizen of the County in which the property is situated, to examine and appraise the property to be exposed to sale under execution, and shall certify such appraisement to the Sheriff or other officer; and in case such appraisers shall not be able to agree upon the valuation of any property, they shall choose a third person, and the appraisement of the three or a majority of them shall be taken as the true value thereof, and in case either party fail to make the choice, the Sheriff shall make the selections for him or them. Such appraisement, certified as before directed, shall be returned by the Sheriff with the execution to the Court from which it issued: Provided, That no proceedings under this section shall prejudice the lien of any creditor, or discharge the Sheriff from any liability for the safe keeping of any such property. SEC. 9. That no property shall be sold under any deed of trust or mortgage, until the debts secured in said deed of trust or mortgage, are reduced to judgments according to the provisions of this act. SEC. 10. All executions shall be tested as of the term next before the day on which they issued, and shall be returnable to the term of the Court next after that from which they bear test: Provided, That no sale of property under execution upon judgment obtained at fall term, eighteen hun Proviso. When property may be sold. under deed of trust Executions to be listed. Proviso. Nothing in this act shall operate to dred and sixty-nine, shall be made until thirty days before spring term, eighteen hundred and seventy. SEC. 11. The provisions of this act shall not apply to proceedings by attachment. SEC. 12. Nothing in this act shall operate to repeal the repcal Code of Civil provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure, which allow defendants to be arrested and held to bail in certain cases. Procedure. SEC. 13. All laws and clauses of laws inconsistent with the provisions of this act are suspended until the first day of January, Anno Domini eighteen hundred and seventyone; and this act shall be in force from and after its ratification, and shall continue in force until the first day of January, eighteen hundred and seventy-one. Ratified the 22d day of March, A. D. 1869. CHAPTER LXXVII. AN ACT TO AMEND AN ACT ENTITLED AN ACT TO MAKE BANK Act of August 22, 1858, amended. Who entitled to benefit of this act. SECTION 1. The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact, That an act entitled an act to make bank bills a set off, ratified the twenty-second day of August, Auno Domini eighteen hundred and sixty-eight, be so amended as to apply to judgments and executions which may have been obtained on any debt due any of the banks mentioned in the aforesaid act. SEC. 2. That when any person shall have given his or her note or bond, since the first of May, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, to any of said banks, the consideration of which was specie, they shall not be entitled to the benefit of this act, or the one to which this is amendatory. SEC. 3. The provisions of section one in this act, shall apply to all cases where such notes or bonds are given to any President, Cashier or other person, for the benefit or interest of such banks, and also in all cases when any note. or bond has been given in lieu of any note or notes, bond or bonds, to any banking association, or for the benefit of the same. SEC. 4. The remedy under this act may be plea of set off, Remedy may be "by injunction. or by injunction, as the case may require. Ratified the 17th day of March, A. D. 1869. CHAPTER LXXVIII. AN ACT TO AUTHORIZE JONATHAN MANN, LATE SHERIFF OF lect arrears of taxes. SECTION 1. The General Assembly of North Carolina do Authorized to colenact, That Jonathan Mann, late Sheriff of Stanly County, be allowed to collect the arrears of taxes due him for the years eighteen hundred and sixty-six and eighteen hundred and sixty-seven: Provided, That this act shall not continue Proviso. in force after the first day of November, Anno Domini eighteen hundred and sixty-nine: Provided further, That no person shall be compelled to pay any taxes authorized by this act to be collected, who will swear that they have paid their taxes for the years eighteen hundred and sixtysix and eighteen hundred sixty-seven. SEC. 2. This act shall be in force from and after its ratification. Ratified the 17th day of March, A. D. 1869. No sale of swamp lands to be made of General Assembly. AN ACT IN RELATION TO PROPERTY BELONGING TO THE BOARD OF EDUCATION. SECTION 1. The General Assembly of North Carolina do except by authority enact, That no sales of swamp lands, stocks or other property appropriated to the cause of education, shall be made, except by the authority of the General Assembly, on such terms as shall be prescribed by law, and all laws in conflict with this act are hereby repealed. SEC. 2. This act shall go into effect from and after its ratification. Ratified the 17th day of March, A. D. 1869. May collect arrears of taxes. CHAPTER LXXX. AN ACT FOR THE RELIEF OF THE SECURITIES OF S. A. WARREN, SECTION 1. The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact, The Sheriff of the County of Northampton is hereby authorized and directed to collect arrears of taxes due for the years eighteen hundred and sixty-six and eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, under the same rules, regulations and penalties as are prescribed by law for the collection and disbursement of other taxes: Provided, Said Sheriff shall not be allowed to collect taxes from any person who will swear such tax has been paid, nor from the estate of any deceased person, who has died since the tax become due from the late Sheriff. SEC. 2. The money collected under and by virtue of this act shall be placed to the credit of Samuel A. Warren, late |