with intent thereby to hinder or delay the recovery or payment of his debts, the clerk of the court of the county in which such judgment shall have been rendered, shall thereupon issue a capias ad satisfaciendum in the same manner as though this act had not been passed: and upon the arrest of any such defendant or defendants under such capias ad satisfaciendum, he or they may be brought by habeas corpus before the court of such county, if in term time, and before one of the judges thereof in vacation, and may call upon the plaintiff or plaintiffs, to show cause why he or they, the said defendant or defendants shall not be discharged from said imprisonment; and upon such notice, either party may demand a trial by jury; and thereupon the said court or judge shall direct an issue or issues to be framed upon the affidavit so filed, and shall cause a jury to be impannelled and sworn to try such issue or issues, and if the finding of the jury upon such issue or issues shall be for the plaintiff, such defendant or defendants shall be thereupon remanded to prison, and be dealt with as though this act had not been passed:Proviso. And provided further, that nothing in this act shall be construed to authorize the custody or imprisonment of any female person on civil process, nor to any non-resident for any debt contracted out of the District of Columbia:Proviso. Provided, That nothing contained in this act shall prevent the execution of process already in the hands of the marshal and not yet executed.
Approved, June 17, 1844.
Statute Ⅰ.
Chap. CI.—An Act concerning conveyances, or devises of places of public worship in the District of Columbia.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,All conveyances, &c. of places of public worship to be held by trustees for the purpose of the trust. That when any lot, or part of a lot, tract, or parcel of land has been heretofore conveyed or devised, to one or more trustees, for the use and benefit of any religious congregation as a place of public worship, the same, and all buildings and other improvements thereupon, shall be held by such trustee or trustees (or their successors) for the purpose of the trust, and not otherwise.
Not to be void for want of trustees.Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That when any conveyance or devise has been heretofore, or shall hereafter be made, of such property for the use, and benefit, and purpose aforesaid, the same shall not be void or frustrated by reason of the want of trustees to take and hold the same in trust, but trustees may be appointed in the manner hereinafter directed.
Circuit court may appoint trustees, and legal titles to be in them and their successors.Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That when such conveyance or devise has been heretofore, or shall hereafter be made, whether by the intervention of trustees, or not, the circuit court of the District of Columbia, sitting in the county where such property is, or may be situated, shall, on application of the United States attorney for the District of Columbia, on behalf of the authorized authorities of any such religious congregation, have full power and authority to appoint trustees, originally, when there are none, or to substitute others, from time to time, in cases of death, refusal, or neglect to act, removal from the county, or other inability to execute the trust beneficially and conveniently; and the legal title shall thereupon become exclusively vested in the whole number of the trustees and their successors.
Majority of acting trustees may sue and be sued, &c.Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That a majority of the acting trustees for any such congregation may sue and be sued in their own names, in relation to the title, possession, or enjoyment of such property without abatement by the death of any of the trustees, or substitution of others; but the action or suit may, notwithstanding, be, prosecuted to its final termination in the names of the trustees by or against