necessary for the proper management and safe-keeping of prisoners, which ay be authorized by law, subject to the approval of the chief justice the supreme court of the District.

Sec. 1196. SUPREME COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA TO MAKE RULES. -It shall be the duty of the supreme court of the District to make such rules for the government and discipline of the prisoners confined in the jail as shall be deemed necessary for the health, security, and the protection of such prisoners from cruel treatment by any person in charge thereof.

Sec. 1197. ANNUAL REPORT.-The warden shall annually, in the month of November, make a detailed report to the Attorney-General. Sec. 1198. EXECUTION IN CAPITAL CASES. -Whenever any person confined in the jail is adjudged to suffer death, it shall be the duty of the warden to carry such judgment into execution.

Sec. 1199. MODE OF EXECUTION.-The manner of inflicting the punishment of death shall be by hanging.

Sec. 1200. PLACE OF EXECUTION.--Persons adjudged to suffer death shall be executed within the walls of the jail of the District, or within the yard or inclosure thereof, and not elsewhere.

Sec. 1201. OFFICERS TO ATTEND.-It shall be the duty of the warden or one of his deputies, with such officers of the prison, constables, and other peace officers as the warden or deputy may deem necessary and proper, to attend at such execution.

Sec. 1202. WHO MAY BE PRESENT.-The warden or his deputy shall invite the district attorney, the counsel of the prisoner, two or more physicians, and twelve respectable citizens to be present at every such execution, and at the request of the person to be executed shall also allow any of his near relatives and any ministers of the gospel (not more than three) to be present thereat.

Sec. 1203. WHO MAY NOT BE PRESENT.-No persons other than those mentioned in the two preceding sections, and no person whatever under the age of twenty-one years, shall be allowed to witness any such execution.

Sec. 1204. SUBSISTENCE OF PRISONERS.-There shall be allowed and paid by the Attorney-General for the subsistence of prisoners in the custody of any marshal of the United States and the warden of the jail in the District of Columbia such sum as it reasonably and actually costs to subsist them. And it shall be the duty of the AttorneyGeneral to prescribe such regulations for the government of the marshals and the warden of the jail in the District of Columbia in relation to their duties under this chapter as will enable him to determine the actual and reasonable expenses incurred.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

JOINT CONTRACTS.

Sec. 1205. WHAT CONTRACTS JOINT AND SEVERAL.-Every contract and obligation entered into by two or more persons, whether partners or merely joint contractors, whether under seal or not, and whether written or verbal, and whether expressed to be joint and several or not, shall for the purposes of suit thereupon be deemed joint and several.

Sec. 1206. DEATH OF JOINT CONTRACTOR.-If one or more of such persons shall die, his or their executors, administrators, or heirs shall be bound by said contract in the same manner and to the same extent as if the same were expressed to be joint and several.

Sec. 1207. MERGER.-If an action be brought against all the parties to such contract, but service of process is had against some only of the defendants, or an action is brought against and service had on some only of the parties, a judgment against the parties so served shall not work an extinguishment or merger of the cause of action on which such judgment is founded as respects the parties not so served, but they shall remain liable to be sued separately.

Sec. 1208. DEATH AFTER SUIT BROUGHT.-If any one of several defendants in an action shall die after the commencement of the action, his legal representatives may be made parties thereto as directed in chapter two aforesaid.

Sec. 1209. EVIDENCE.-In actions ex contractu against alleged joint debtors it shall not be necessary for the plaintiff to prove their joint liability as alleged in order to maintain his action, but he shall be entitled to recover, as in actions ex delicto, against such of the defendants as shall be shown by the evidence to be jointly indebted to him, or against one only, if he alone is shown to be indebted to him, and judgment shall be rendered as if the others had not been joined in the suit.

Sec. 1210. SEPARATE COMPROMISE.-Any one of several joint debtors, when their debt is overdue, may make a separate composition or compromise with their creditors, with the same effect as is provided in the case of parties in chapter forty-seven, on partners.

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CHAPTER XXXVII.

JOINDER OF PARTIES AND CAUSES OF ACTION.

Sec. 1211. Where money is payable by two or more persons jointly or severally or jointly and severally upon the same obligation or instrument, one action may be sustained and judgment recovered against all or any of the parties by whom the money is payable, at the option of the plaintiff; but if separate actions be brought unnecessarily against the several parties to such contract, the said actions may on motion be consolidated, and the plaintiff shall be allowed the costs of one action only.

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CHAPTER XXXVIII.

JUDGMENTS AND DECREES.

Sec. 1212. LIMITATIONS.-Every final judgment at common law and every final decree in equity for the payment of money rendered in the supreme court of the District, and every judgment of a justice of the peace certified to and docketed in the clerk's office of the said supreme court, as herein elsewhere directed, shall be good and enforceable, by an execution issued thereon, for the period of twelve years only from the date when an execution might first be issued thereon, or from the date of the last revival thereof under scire facias, except as provided in the next section; but the time during which the judgment creditor is stayed by agreement in writing filed in the cause, or injunction, or other order, or by the operation of an appeal from enforcing the judgment is not to be computed as part of said period of twelve years.

Sec. 1213. EXPIRATION OF JUDGMENT OR DECREE.-At the expiration of said period of twelve years the said judgment or decree shall cease to have any operation or effect, and no action shall be brought on the same nor any scire facias or execution issued on the same thereafter; but this provision shall in no wise affect any proceeding that may be then pending for the enforcement of the said judgment or decree.

Sec. 1214. LIEN OF JUDGMENT OR DECREE.-Every final judgment at common law and every unconditional final decree in equity for the payment of money from the date when the same shall be rendered, every judgment of a justice of the peace when docketed in the clerk's office of the supreme court of the District of Columbia, and every recognizance taken by said supreme court, or a justice thereof, from the time when it shall be declared forfeited, shall be a lien on all the freehold and leasehold estates, legal and equitable, of the defendants bound by such judgment, decree, or recognizance, in any lands, tenements, or hereditaments in the District, whether such estates be in possession or be reversions or remainders, vested or contingent, but such liens on equitable interests shall be enforced by bill in equity. And any recognizance taken in the police court, after being forfeited, may be transmitted to the clerk's office of said supreme court and therein docketed in the same manner as the judgment of a justice of the peace as aforesaid, and thereupon shall have the same effect as if taken in the said supreme court; and said lien shall continue as long as such judgment, decree, or recognizance shall be in force or until the same shall be satisfied or discharged.

Sec. 1215. SCIRE FACIAS.-If during the period of twelve years from the rendition of the judgment or decree, or from judgment upon a scire facias thereon, the creditor shall cause a scire facias to be issued upon the judgment or decree and a fiat shall be issued thereupon, the

effect of such fiat shall be to extend the effect and operation of said judgment or decree with the lien thereby created and all the remedies for the enforcement of the same for the period of twelve years from the date of such fiat.

Sec. 1216. LIEN OF MORTGAGE.-Where real property is sold and conveyed and, at the same time, a mortgage or deed of trust thereupon is given by the purchaser to secure the payment of the whole or any part of the purchase money, the lien of the said mortgage or deed of trust on the property shall be superior to that of a previous judgment or decree against the purchaser.

Sec. 1217. DOCKET. The clerk of said supreme court shall keep and maintain a docket, to be known as the judgment docket, in which shall be entered the titling of every cause and proceeding in which any judgment or decree may be entered or any recognizance taken, as aforesaid, including recognizances transmitted from the police court, as aforesaid, with a minute of the dates and amounts thereof, and said judgments, decrees, and recognizances shall be indexed in the names of all the principals and sureties bound thereby.