DIGEST OF THE Statute Law OF SOUTH CAROLINA. Abatement. [See Title 131, Pleas and Pleadings.] Abduction. [See Title 179, Women.] TITLE 1. Accessory.* 1. "FOR the due punishment of such as command, counsel, or hire any person or persons, to commit, perpetrate, or do any TIT. 1. P. L. 60. petty treason, wilful murder, or any of the offences in this A. D. 1557. present act mentioned: Be it enacted, That all and eve- St. 4 & 5 P. & ry person and persons, that, after the 1st day of March next M. c. 4. coming, shall maliciously command, hire or counsel any person or persons to commit, or do any petty treason, wilful murder, or to do any robbery in any dwelling house, or houses, or to commit or do any robbery in or near any high way in the realm of England, or in any other the Queen's dominions, or to commit or do any robbery in any place within the Before the marches of England against Scotland, or wilfully to burn any fact, in cer dwelling house, or any part thereof, or any barn then having tain cases, not to have the becorn or grain in the same; that then every such offender or nefit of cler offenders, and every of them, being outlawed thereof, or being thereof arraigned and found guilty by the order of the law, or An accessory is he who is not the chief actor in the offence, nor present at its performance, but is someway concerned therein, either before or after the fact committed. The highest and lowest offences do not admit of accessories, as treason, and petty larceny, and offences under the degree of felony. All concerned therein are principals. See 4 Bl. Com. 35, 36. TIT. 1. being otherwise lawfully attainted or convicted of the same offence, or being arraigned thereof, do stand mute of malice [See 4 Bl. or froward mind, or do challenge peremptory above the num Com. 34, 36. ber of twenty persons, or will not answer directly to such of Id. 222.] fence, shall not have the benefit of his or their clergy. A. D. 1701. St. 1 Ann. St. 2. c. 9. P. L. 92. 9. [See St.3 & 4 2. Forasmuch as the counsellors and contrivers of thef and other felonies, and the receivers of goods that have been stolen, are the principal cause of the commission of such felo nies; and as the law now is, no accessory can be convicted or suffer any punishment where the principal is not attainted or hath the benefit of his clergy;" Be it therefore enacted That from and after the 12th day of February, which shall be in the year of our Lord 1702, if any principal offender shal When to be be convicted of any felony, or shall stand mute, or peremp proceeded a torily challenge above the number of twenty persons returned gainst. to serve of the jury, it shall and may be lawful to proceed against any accessory, either before or after the fact, in the same manner as if such principal felon had been attainted thereof, notwithstanding any such principal felon shall be ad mitted to the benefit of his clergy, pardoned, or otherwise de livered before attainder; and every such accessory shall suf fer the same punishment, if he or she be convicted, or shall stand mute, or peremptorily challenge above the number of twenty persons returned to serve of the jury, as he or she should have suffered if the principal had been attainted. [See Title 142, Receiving Stolen Goods.] TIT. 2. TITLE 2. Account. [Action of] 1. "IT is provided also, That if bailiffs, which ought to make account to their lords, do withdraw themselves, and St. 52 H. 3. c. have no lands nor tenements whereby they may be distrain 23. P. L, 27. ed; then they shall be attached by their bodies, so that the sheriff, in whose bailiwick they be found, shall cause them to come to make their account."* [See 3 Bl. Com. 163.] 2. "Concerning servants, bailiffs, chamberlains, and all manner of receivers, which are bound to yield accompt, it is *This action is now seldom, if ever, brought, and may, perhaps, be considered obsolete. By the old common law it lay only against the parties themselves, and not their executors. This was remedied by the Stat. 4 Ann. c. 16 The writ of account, de computo, commands the defendant to render a just account to the plaintiff, or show cause to the contrary. Where the plaintiff succeeds, there are two judgments: first, that the defendant do account (quod computet) before auditors appointed by the court; and, when such account is finished, the second judgment is, that he do pay the plaintiff so much as is found in arrear 3 Bl.Com. 163.-Co. Litt. 90. A more ready and effectual remedy is by Bill in a Court of Equity. Upon a stated account, an action of as sumpsit upon an insimul computassent is usually brought, predicated on the implied undertaking of the defendant to pay the balance. See 2 Just. 148. TIT. 2. n Westm. 2. agreed and ordained, That when the masters of such servants do assign auditors to take their accompt, and they be found in arrearages upon the accompt, all things allowed which A. D. 1285. ought to be allowed, their bodies shall be arrested, and, by the St. 13 Ed. 1. testimony of the auditors of the same accompt, shall be sent c. 11. or delivered unto the next goal of the king's in those parts; P. L. 29. and shall be received of the sheriff or goaler, and imprisoned in iron under safe custody, and shall remain in the same prison at their own cost, until they have satisfied their master fully of the arrearages. Nevertheless, if any person, being so committed to prison, do complain that the auditors of his accompt have grieved him unjustly, charging him with receipts that he hath not received, or not allowing him expences, or reasonable disbursements, and can find friends that will undertake to bring him before the barons of the exchequer, he shall be delivered unto them; and the sheriff (in whose pri- [See 3 Bl. son he is kept) shall give knowledge unto his master, that he Com. 164.] appear before the barons of the exchequer at a certain day, with the rolls and tallies by which he made his accompt; and in the presence of the barons, or the auditors that they shall assign him, the accompt shall be rehearsed, and justice shall be done to the parties, so that if he be found in arrearages, he shall be committed to the fleet, as above is said. And if he flee, and will not give account willingly, as is contained elsewhere in other statutes, he shall be distrained to come before the justices to make his accompt, if he have whereof to be distrained. And when he cometh to the court, auditors shall be assigned to take his accompt, before whom, if he be found in arrearages, and cannot pay the arrearages forthwith, he shall be committed to the goal, to be kept in manner aforesaid. And if he flee, and it be returned to the sheriff that he cannot be found, exigents shall go against him from county to county, until he be outlawed, and such prisoner shall not be replevisable. And let the sheriff or keeper of such goal take heed, if it be within a franchise, or without, that he do not suffer him to go out of prison by the common writ called Replegiare, or by other means, without assent of his master; and if he do, and thereof be convict, he shall be answerable to his master of the damages done to him by such his servant, according as it may be found by the country, and shall have his recovery by writ of debt. And if the keeper of the goal have not wherewith he may be justified, or not able to pay, his superior, that committed the custody of the goal unto him, shall be answerable by the same writ."* P. L. 97. 3. And be it enacted, That from and after the said 1st day A. D. 1714. of Trinity term, actions of account shall and may be brought and St. 4 Ann. c. 16. maintained against the executors and administrators of every guardian, bailiff, and receiver; and also by one joint tenant, and tenant in common, his executors and administrators, a *"Chamberlains,”-Camerarii, i. e. receivers. "Auditors,”-auditores.-Auditors are judges of record. An account before one auditor is not within this statute; for the act is in nature of a commission. Sec 2 Inst. 380. TIT. 2. gainst the other, as bailiff for receiving more than comes to his just share or proportion, and against the executor and adminis trator of such joint tenant, or tenant in common; and the auditors appointed by the court, where such action shall be depending, shall be, and are hereby impowered to administer an oath, and examine the parties touching the matters in question, and for their pains and trouble in auditing and taking such account, have such allowance as the court shall adjudge to be reasonable, to be paid by the party on whose side the balance of the account shall appear to be. TIT. 3. A. A. 1795. 2 Faust 15. TITLE 3. Accounts. [Public] 1. BE it enacted, That from and after the first day of January, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-six, all accounts in the public offices of this state, and all accounts of the taxcollectors, shall be expressed in dollars or units, dismes or How to be ex- tenths, cents or hundredths, and mills or thousandths, a disme pressed. being the tenth part of a dollar, à cent the hundredth part of a dollar, and a mill the thousandth part of a dollar. A. A. 1801. 2 Faust 425. 2. And be it further enacted, That all accounts against the state shall be transmitted to one of the treasurers, who shall To be trans- send them to the comptroller on or before the first day of Ocmitted to the tober in every year. [See Title 45, Comptroller.-Title 165, Treasurers. Treasurers.] TIT. 4. A. A. 1812. Action at Law. [See Title 110, Limitation of, &c.] TITLE 4. Acts of Assembly. 1. AND be it enacted, That from and after the passing of this act, the clerk of every circuit court in this state shall be authorized, and is hereby required to draw an order on, and send an express to the treasurer at Columbia or Charleston, Copies to be whichever place may be nearest to the court-house of the said distributed by district, for so many copies of the acts of the legislature as clerks of the the said district may be entitled to by law and the said clerk courts. To be printed shall deliver, upon application, to each person in said district who may be entitled to the same, one copy of the said acts; the person who carries the said express shall receive three dollars for every forty miles he shall travel, in going and returning in the said service. 2. And be it enacted, That it shall be the duty of the prinby the 15th ter of the state to have the said acts printed on or before the February in 15th of February in every year hereafter; and the clerk of every year. |