The qualification of sureties, and their justification under this act, shall be the same as provided in sections one hundred and ninety-four and one hundred and ninety-five of the Code in respect to bail on arrest in the supreme court.

Sections two hundred and fourteen, two hundred and fifteen, and two hundred and sixteen, of the Code, shall apply to proceedings and actions brought under this act, substituting the word constable for the word sheriff whenever it occurs in either of said sections.

The actions so commenced shall be tried in all respects as other actions are tried in justices' courts.

The judgment for the plaintiff may be for the possession, or for the recovery of the possession, or the value thereof, in case a delivery cannot be had, and of damages for the detention. If the property have been delivered to the plaintiff, and the defendant claim a return thereof, judgment for the defendant may be for a return of the property, or the value thereof in case a return cannot be had, and damages for taking and withholding the same. An execution shall be issued thereon, and if the judgment be for the delivery of the possession of personal property, it shall require the officer to deliver the possession of the same, particularly describing it, to the party entitled thereto, and may at the same time require the officer to satisfy any costs or damages recovered by the same judgment out of the personal property of the party against whom it was rendered, to be specified therein, if a delivery thereof cannot be had. The execution shall be returnable within sixty days after its receipt by the officer, to the justice who issued the same.

In all actions for the recovery of the possession of personal property, as herein provided, if the property shall not have been delivered to plaintiff, or the defendant, by answer, shall claim a return thereof, the justice or jury shall assess the value thereof, and the injury sustained by the prevailing party by reason of the taking or detention thereof, and the justice shall render judgment accordingly, with costs and disbursements.

If it shall appear by the return of a constable that he has taken the property described in the plaintiff's affidavit, and that defendant cannot be found, and has no last place of abode in said county, or that no agent of defendant could be found on whom service could be made, the justice may proceed with the cause in the same manner as though there had been a personal service.

For the indorsement on said affidavit the justice shall receive an additional fee of twenty-five cents, which shall be included in the costs of the suit.

§ 54. [47.] No jurisdiction in certain cases.

But no justice of the peace shall have cognizance of a civil ac

tion

1. In which the people of this state are a party, excepting for penalties not exceeding one hundred dollars;

2. Nor where the title to real property shall come in question, as provided by sections fifty-five to sixty-two, both inclusive;

3. Nor of a civil action for an assault, battery, false imprisonment, libel, slander, malicious prosecution, criminal conversation, or seduction;

4. Nor of a matter of account where the sum total of the accounts of both parties, proved to the satisfaction of the justice, shall exceed four hundred dollars;

5. Nor of an action against an executor or administrator as such.

$55. [48.] Answer of Title.

In every action brought in a court of justice of the peace, where the title to real property shall come in question, the defendant may, either with or without other matter of defence, set forth in his answer any matter showing that such title will come in question. Such answer shall be in writing, signed by the defendant or his attorney, and delivered to the justice. The justice shall thereupon countersign the same and deliver it to the plaintiff,

§ 56. [49.] (A'md 1851, 1858.) Undertaking to be given. At the time of answering the defendant shall deliver to the justice a written undertaking, executed by at least one sufficient surety, and approved by the justice, to the effect that if the plaintiff shall, within twenty days thereafter, deposit with the justice a summons and complaint in an action in the supreme court for the same cause, the defendant will, within twenty days after such deposit, give an admission in writing of the service thereof,

Where the defendant was arrested in the action before the justice, the undertaking shall further provide, that he will, at all times, render himself amenable to the process of the court during the pendency of the action, and to such as may be issued to enforce the judgment therein. In case of failure to comply with the undertaking, the surety shall be liable not exceeding one hundred dollars.

§ 57. [50.] (Am'd 1851, 1858.) Action discontinued.-Costs. Upon the delivery of the undertaking to the justice, the action before him shall be discontinued, and each party shall pay his own. costs. The costs so paid by either party shall be allowed to him if he recover costs in the action to be brought for the same cause in the supreme court. If no such action be brought within thirty days after the delivery of the undertaking, the defendant's costs before the justice may be recovered of the plaintiff.

§ 58. [51.] If undertaking be not given.

If the undertaking be not delivered to the justice, he shall have jurisdiction of the cause, and shall proceed therein; and the defendant shall be precluded, in his defence, from drawing the title in question.

§ 59. [52.] (Am'd 1849.) The same.

If, however, it appear on the trial, from the plaintiff's own showing, that the title to real property is in question, and such title shall be disputed by the defendant, the justice shall dismiss the action, and render judgment against the plaintiff for the costs.

§ 60. [53.] (Am'd 1851, 1858.) Another action may be brought.

When a suit before a justice shall be discontinued by the delivery of an answer and undertaking, as provided in sections fifty-five, fiftysix, and fifty-seven, the plaintiff may prosecute an action for the same cause in the supreme court, and shall complain for the same cause of action only on which he relied before the justice; and the answer of the defendant shall set up the same defence only which he made before the justice.

§ 61. [54.] (Am'd 1851, 1858.) Costs.

If the judgment in the supreme court be for the plaintiff, he shall recover costs; if it be for the defendant, he shall recover costs, except that upon a verdict he shall pay costs to the plaintiff, unless the judge certify that the title to real property came in question on the trial.

§ 62. [55.] (Am'd 1849, 1851, 1858, 1860.) Answer of title as to one cause of action.-Transfer of cases to supreme court.

If, in an action before a justice, the plaintiff have several causes of ⚫ action, to one of which the defence of title to real property shall be interposed, and as to such cause the defendant shall answer and deliver an undertaking, as provided in sections fifty-five and fifty-six, the justice shall discontinue the proceedings as to that cause, and the plaintiff may commence another action therefor in the supreme court. As to the other causes of action, the justice may continue his proceedings.

All actions pending in any county court on the seventh day of May, eighteen hundred and fifty-eight, in all cases in which a plea of title was interposed in actions originally commenced in a justice's court, are transferred to and vested in the supreme court, with full power and jurisdiction to proceed therein, as if commenced in said supreme court, by reason of a plea of title having been interposed in a justice's court in like cases.

§ 63. [56.] (Am'd 1849.) Docketing justices' judgments.

A justice of the peace, on the demand of a party in whose favor he shall have rendered a judgment, shall give a transcript thereof, which may be filed and docketed in the office of the clerk of the county where the judgment was rendered. The time of the receipt of the transcript by the clerk shall be noted thereon and entered in the docket; and from that time the judgment shall be a judgment of the county court. A certified transcript of such judgment may be filed and docketed in the clerk's office of any other county, and with the like effect, in every respect, as in the county where the judgment was rendered, except that it shall be a lien only from the time of filing and docketing the transcript. But no such judgment for a less sum than twenty-five dollars, exclusive of costs, hereafter docketed, shall be a lien upon or enforced against real property.

§ 64. [57.] (Am'd 1849, 1851, 1852, 1860, 1867.) Rules. The following rules shall be observed in the courts of justices of the peace:

1. The pleadings in these courts are

1. The complaint by the plaintiff;

2. The answer by the defendant.

2. The pleadings may be oral or in writing; if oral, the substance of them shall be entered by the justice in his docket; if in writing, they shall be filed by him, and a reference to them shall be made in the docket.

3. The complaint shall state, in a plain and direct manner, the facts constituting the cause of action.

4. The answer may contain a denial of the complaint, or of any part thereof, and also a notice in a plain and direct manner of any facts constituting a defence or counter-claim.

5. Pleadings are not required to be in any particular form, but must be such as to enable a person of common understanding to know what is intended.

6. Either party may demur to a pleading of his adversary, or any part thereof, when it is not sufficiently explicit to enable him to understand it, or it contains no cause of action or defence, although it be taken as true.

7. If the court deem the objection well founded, it shall order the pleading to be amended; and if the party refuse to amend, the defective pleading shall be disregarded.

8. In case a defendant does not appear and answer, the plaintiff cannot recover without proving his case.

9. In an action or defence founded upon an account, or an instrument for the payment of money only, it shall be sufficient for a party to deliver the account or instrument to the court, and to state that there is due to him thereon, from the adverse party, a specified sum, which he claims to recover or set off.

10. A variance between the proof on the trial and the allegations in a pleading shall be disregarded as immaterial, unless the court shall be satisfied that the adverse party has been misled to his prejudice thereby.