Time in which

ed.

dence is to be taken, if such place be within ten miles of the residence of the party to whom the notice is given; two days, if within twenty-five miles; three days, if within forty miles, and four days if at any greater distance.

Act 1856, p. 9, appeal. Act 1868, p. 218, § 8, contest.

Sec. 1421. Within ten days after the election, the party contesting shall present to the court, and which shall be filed, a the election is petition signed by at least twenty voters of the parish, or in to be contest-case of an election by a ward, or other division of the parish, then the voters signing such petition shall be ten in number, and be residents of the ward for which the election has been held, praying the court to examine the facts and decide thereon. The signatures to such petition shall be presumed to be genuine until shown by proof to be otherwise.

Contested

conducted.

Sec. 1422. After ten days from the date of service of the petition of the contestant, and at least ten days' notice of the elections, how filing of the petition by the voters, the adverse party shall be bound to answer; and the issue thus formed shall be proceeded with summarily before the court and jury. The trial shall be conducted and submitted to the jury according to the laws by which other jury trials are governed. A majority only of the jurors shall be required to return a verdict. The jury shall Verdict, how have power to determine by their verdict which of the parties is entitled to the office, or to refer the same again to the people. The court shall have no power to grant a new trial as in other cases, and no appeal shall be allowed.

found.

Judgment,

when final,

New election, how ordered.

Special terms

Act 1858, p. 217.

Sec. 1423. The judgment rendered upon the first finding of the jury shall be final; and on certifying the same to the gov ernor, a commission shall be issued by him in favor of the person in whose favor the verdict may be.

Sec. 1424. If the finding of the jury be in favor of a new election, the sheriff or coroner shall proceed to hold an election on the fourth Monday after the last day of the term of the court at which the judgment was rendered; at least fifteen days' notice of which shall be given at each precinct at which the elections are to be held.

Sec. 1425. The trial of contested elections shall be proceeded with at any regular term of the court for the parish in which to be held for the contest is made. If no regular term of the court is to be contested elec- held within five weeks from the time of filing the petition of the

the trial of

tious.

contestant, a special term shall be holden on the third Monday after the day on which the election for the office contested was held, if such term can be holden without interfering with a regular term elsewhere in the district; if not, then a special term shall be held for that purpose on the second Monday after the close of the term which would otherwise have been interfered with.

Sec. 1426. If the term at which the trial is to be proceeded with is not a regular jury term, the clerk, sheriff, and the officer

for special

vested with the power of recording mortgages of the parish, or Jury, by whom a majority of them, shall within three days after the contestant and how drawn and voters caused their petition to be filed, determine who are terms. to be summoned as jurors for contested elections at the next special or regular term of the court, by placing in a box and mixing together the names of one hundred voters of the parish, from which the names of fifty shall be drawn by the sheriff, and registered as drawn by the clerk and recorder; which fifty so drawn shall form a panel for the trial of contested elections, and if a jury can not be formed from the fifty thus summoned, talesmen shall be summoned by the sheriff to make up a jury. Sec. 1427. If either the clerk, sheriff, or other officer vested with the power of recording mortgages, be absent at the time fixed on to proceed either to selecting or drawing the jurors, or be the person contesting the election, the one or two who attend for the purpose shall elect some other person or persons to perform the duties imposed on such person or persons, as the case may be, with whose assistance the selecting and drawing shall be proceeded with as though all the officers named in the preceding section had been present, aiding and assisting in the

same.

Sec. 1428. In selecting the names of the one hundred voters

In the absence clerk or recorder, vacan

of the sheriff,

cies how filled.

to be placed in the box, it shall be the duty of those selecting Jury, how se the same to select such persons residing in such parts of the lected. parish as will enable them most conveniently to attend the court.

how made.

Sec. 1429. In impaneling the jury, each party shall be en- Challenges, titled to ten peremptory challenges.

sion shall be

Sec. 1430. The governor shall not issue a commission until forty days after the day of the election for the parishes within one No commishundred and fifty miles from the seat of government, and fifty issued under days for those parishes over one hundred and fifty miles from the election. the seat of government. The distance to be computed by the usually traveled route.

forty days after

Certain certifi

On the successful candidate furnishing to the governor a copy of the judgment of the court in his favor, duly certified by the clerk, dated after the last day of the term, the governor shall cate of the immediately issue a commission to such successful party, the clerk. certificate of the clerk showing, either that the contest has been abandoned, or the right to prosecute is lost by non-compliance with the provisions of law, the governor shall issue his commission in favor of the person in whose favor the certificate of election has been granted. In either case the governor shall only issue the commission upon the party's complying with the other requirements of law.

D. Sec. 1638.

Sec. 1431. Any person intending to contest an election shall, within thirty days of the election in the case of a representative Proceedings in or senator, give to the person concerned a written notice, under case of a conhis hand, and attested by two subscribing witnesses, stating the of a senator or fact on which the contest is founded, and no other can after- tive.

tested election

representa

Testimony, how taken.

Petition to va

the member

is contested.

wards be admitted, and ten days' notice of the time and place of taking depositions thereon must be given the opposite party. Act 1814, p. 100, § 10.

Sec. 1432. Any judge of a court of record, or two justices of the peace shall issue subpenas for witnesses, and have power to compel their attendance; and the depositions taken before them shall be transmitted to the secretary of State, who shall lodge them, within three days after the succeeding session, with the clerk of the house of representatives, or with the secretary of the senate, if they relate to a senator.

Act 1814, p. 100, § 11.

Sec. 1433. The person or persons contesting an election shall present a petition, signed by at least ten qualified electors of the cate the seat of district, within three days after the next meeting of the legis whose election lature or within ten days of the time when such depositions were taken; allowing also one day for every twenty miles distance from the place of holding such elections, to the seat of government, praying the house to examine the facts and decide thereon; and the judgment rendered thereon shall either confirm or vacate the seat.

ed in cases of

tions.

Amount of the

Act 1814, p. 100, § 12.

Sec. 1434. In all contested elections brought before the Appeal grant courts of this State, the party cast shall have the right of appeal contested elec- to the supreme court, as in other civil cases, where it is shown in the record, that the amount of the emoluments of the office emoluments to in contest, is over three hundred dollars, on the appellant giving entitle to ap- bond and security in such sum as the judge of the court which Effects of the renders the judgment shall direct; and such appeal shall be appeal. considered suspensive in its operation and effect, any law to the contrary notwithstanding.

peals.

Contested

cases to have

D. Sec. 83, 40, 1904, 1913. Act 1856, p. 117, § 2.

Sec. 1435. All such contested cases shall have preference in preference in the supreme court over all other cases therein pending, any law to the contrary notwithstanding.

the supreme

court.

D. Sec. 42, 1938.

N. B.-On the subject of elections see Act 1870, No. 99, p. 132; Act 1872, No. 98, p. 15; Act 1873, No. 19, p. 5; Act 1874, Nos. 127, 155.

the officers of

Sec. 1436. It shall be the duty of the several courts of this State to receive the attestation or certificate of any American The official consul, consul-general, vice-consul or commercial agent, residing character of in any foreign country, as legal evidence of the attributes and foreign coun official station or authority of any magistrate or other civil tries, how officer in such foreign country under the laws thereof; which attestation and seal shall be full and complete proof that it emanated from said consul, consul-general, vice-consul or commercial agent, as the case may be.

D. Sec. 602, Act 1855, p. 208.

proved.

the size of town lots, how regulated.

Sec. 1437. Whenever land, divided into town lots and sold Variations in in conformity with a plan, shall not be of the same extent as that mentioned in said plan, and the difference shall be more than one thousandth part, it shall be the duty of the State surveyor, commissioned for the parish where said land is situated, to apportion, in conformity with the dispositions of the Civil Code, the surplus or deficit of said land, and to make a plan pointing out, according to such apportionment, the correct dimensions of each square and the breadth of each street; said plan shall be deposited by the surveyor of the parish in the office of parish recorder of the parish where the land is situated; and public notices shall be given by said surveyor in the State paper, during thirty days, directing all persons interested to present their opposition to the original plan deposited as aforesaid with the parish recorder, which oppositions shall be referred to and be decided by the district courts; and said original plan, when Their descrip- not opposed within the delay aforesaid, or when modified in the mensions, how opposition filed, shall be registered by said recorder in his office, and shall be authentic evidence of the description and dimensions of said property.

tion and di

established.

Convicts may

D. Sec. 2466.

Sec. 1438. It shall be lawful to receive the testimony of contestify for and victs for or against each other, in any suit which may occur in any of the courts of the State.

against each other.

New Orleans

to be evidence,

in certain

cases, of the

etc.

C. C. 2281 (2260); D. Sec. 3961.

Sec. 1439. It shall be the duty of any one of the recorders of A protest in New Orleans, or justice of the peace, to whom application shall be made for that purpose, to visit any building where a fire may have happened, immediately after the fire shall have been excause of a fire, tinguished, and inquire into the origin and cause of said fire, examine all witnesses whom the owner or insurers of the property destroyed may desire to have examined under oath, and make and preserve a true and correct record or proces verbal of their testimony, a copy of which record or proces verbal, certified by such recorder or justice, shall be admitted in evidence in any civil action. The party occupying or owning the property, his agent, or any one having the property in charge at the time of the fire, shall be notified by the recorder or justice of the ex

The statutes

amination.

D. Sec. 1876, 2467.

Sec. 1440. The published statutes and digests of other States shall be received in the courts of this State as prima facie eviother States to dence of the statute laws of the States from which they purport

and digests of

be admitted as evidence.

Parol evidence

inadmissible

to emanate.

D. Sec. 2171.

Sec. 1441. Hereafter parol evidence shall not be received to to show inter- prove any acknowledgment and promise to pay any judgment, ruption by ac- sentence or decree of any court of competent jurisdiction, either of prescription in or out of this State, for the purpose or in order to take such judgment, sentence or decree out of prescription, or to recover

knowledgment

against a judg

ment.