Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 2.djvu/276



order any part of the debtor’s estate to be set apart, and retained for the eventual satisfaction of any contested claim, or to be brought again into distribution; and if any creditor to whom a debt is due, shall conclude with a debtor to gain an undue preference, or for the concealment of any part of the debtor’s estate or effects, or shall contrive or concert any acknowledgment of the debtor by parol, or in writing, to give false colour to his claim, such creditor shall lose the whole of his debt.

. And be it [further] [sic] enacted, That if any debtor who shall have been relieved under this act, shall be arrested or imprisoned on any process sued out on any judgment or decree, obtained against him for any debt, damages, or costs contracted, owing or growing due before his discharge as aforesaid, the court before whom such process shall be returned or returnable, or any judge thereof, shall discharge such debtor; and if any such debtor shall be arrested or imprisoned on any process for the recovery of any debt, damages, or costs contracted, owing or growing due before his discharge as aforesaid, the court before whom such process shall be returned, or returnable, or any judge thereof, shall discharge such debtor out of custody, on his common appearance being entered, without special bail: Provided, and it is the true intent and meaning of this act, that no discharge whatever under this act shall be construed or taken as a discharge of any other person from any debt, contract or engagement of any kind or nature soever.

. And be it further enacted, That when the acting judge shall, as above prescribed, give to the marshal an order for the discharge of a debtor, it shall be the duty of the said judge to lodge with the clerk of the county in which the discharge shall take place, a certificate in the following words, to wit. “I do hereby certify, that I have this day ordered the marshal of the district of Columbia, to discharge from imprisonment A. B. an insolvent debtor, agreeably to the act of the Congress of the United States, intituled ‘An act for the relief of insolvent debtors within the district of Columbia,’” which said certificate shall be recorded by the said clerk, and a copy thereof under seal, shall be received in evidence, in any court of law in the United States.

. And be it further enacted, That if any judge before whom the operation of this act in any particular case shall have been commenced, shall die, resign his office or become disqualified, the proceedings may be completed by any other judge of the said court, in the same manner as if they had been originally commenced before him.

. And be it further enacted, That the application of the debtor, the appointment of a trustee, the deed from the debtor to the trustee, the several claims exhibited to the trustee, and the amount of sales of the debtor’s property shall be transmitted to and recorded by the clerk of the county in which the debtor was confined at the time of his application; copies of which, under seal, shall be received as evidence in any court of law in the United States, and the clerk shall receive the same fees as are fixed by law for the like services in other cases, to be paid by the trustee out of the first proceeds of the debtor’s estate that may come into his hands.

. And be it further enacted, That no discharge of an insolvent debtor under this act shall have greater effect in any particular state than if such debtor had been discharged under the insolvent debtor’s law of any other state.

. And be it further enacted, That the circuit court of the district of Columbia shall, by a general order to be entered on the records of the said court, fix the daily allowance for the support and maintenance of prisoners in execution for debt or damages in civil suits, which allowance the said court may, by a like general order, increase or diminish from time to time, as circumstances may require. And no person taken in execution for debt or damages in a civil suit, shall be