CHAPTER 180
OF THE COMMENCEMENT OF ACTIONS.
AN ACT relating to arrests in civil actions.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Delaware in General Assembly met,
SECTION I. That hereafter, no writ of capias ad respondendum shall be issued against any citizen of this State, in any civil action unless the plaintiff therein, or if there be more than one, some one or more of the plaintiffs, shall have made a written affidavit, and filed the same in the office of the prothonotary of the Superior Court of the county out of which the writ is to issue, stating, that to the best of his or their belief, the defendant has absconded, or is about to abscond from the place of his usual abode; or that the defendant is justly indebted to the plaintiff, in a sum exceeding fifty dollars, and that he verily believes the said defendant has secreted, conveyed away, assigned, settled or disposed of, either money, goods, chattels, stock, securities for money, or other personal estate or real estate of the value of more than one hundred dollars, with intent to defraud his creditors, and shall, moreover, in such affidavit, specify and set forth the supposed fraudulent transactions. Provided that this act shall not apply where the action shall be for libel, slander or injury to the person or property, accompanied by violence, if any affidavit of the cause of action be filed with the praecipe.
Passed at Dover, March 3, 1873.