Chap. 0384 An Act relating to RETURN DAYS AND TO PRACTICE IN THE SUPREME JUDICIAL AND SUPERIOR COURTS.

Be it enacted, etc., as follows:

Section 1. The first Monday of every month shall be a return day in every county for writs, processes, notices to appear and citations in all actions, suits and other civil proceedings in the supreme judicial and superior courts respectively, aud such writs, processes, notices and citations may be made returnable at the option of the party issuing or taking out the same at any such return day within three months after the date thereof. The return days heretofore established shall not hereafter be return days for any of such writs, processes, notices or citations, except those issued before the first day of September, eighteen hundred and eighty-five, which may be made returnable as if this act had not been passed. All writs, processes, notices and citations in the supreme judicial court for the counties of Dukes County and Nantucket shall be returnable in the county of Bristol. Nothing contained in this section shall affect any power of either court to make any writs, processes, notices or citations returnable at other times.
Section 2. The courts respectively shall be always open in every county and there shall no longer be any terms thereof. Any business of the courts or of the justices thereof respectively may be transacted at any time ; but no such business shall be transacted on Sunday, except in respect of such applications as, in the opinion of the court or justice to whom the same may be made, shall be of pressing necessity. Sittings of the courts respectively shall be held as heretofore at the times and places appointed by the laws now in force for holding terms of the courts.
Section 3. The courts and the justices thereof respectively may in any county transact any business of such courts, and direct any order, judgment or decree to be entered in an action, suit or proceeding pending in the same court in another county.
Section 4. Whenever the terms of the courts respectively are referred to in any statute of this state for any purpose not otherwise herein provided for, such terms shall for the purposes of such statute be considered as commencing on the day appointed by law for the commencement of the regular sittings of the court and as ending on the day preceding the next such sittings.
Section 5. Appeals and actions removed from municipal, police and district courts and trial justices to the superior court, shall be entered at the return day next after the appeal is taken or the removal requested. And appeals from the decisions of commissioners or of probate courts upon claims against estates of deceased persons represented insolvent, and from decisions of courts of insolvency upon claims against estates in insolvency) or upon the question of granting a discharge, aud appeals under section fifteen of chapter one hundred and eighty-nine of the Public Statutes, shall be entered in the courl appealed to at the return day, instead of at the term next after the periods of time specified in the statutes prescribing when such appeals shall be entered respectively, and where a statement of claim is required it shall be filed al such return day, and the provisions of bonds and recognizances in any of the said cases shall be altered accordingly. In sections nine, ten and twelve of chaptei eighty-five, and section twenty-seven of chapter one hundred and sixty-one of the Public Statutes the Avorc " term " shall be taken to mean " return day " : provided,
that nothing contained in this act shall affect the time appointed in any of these cases for doing any act, where the appeal is claimed or taken or the removal requested, or the bond or default mentioned in any of the said sections is required or made before this act takes effect.
Section 6. Section nine of chapter one hundred and sixty-seven of the Public Statutes is amended so as to read as follows:-If no declaration has been inserted in the writ or filed pursuant to the preceding section, the action may at any time, upon motion, be dismissed with costs, but the court may at any time before such dismissal, in its discretion, allow the plaintiff to file his declaration upon such terms, if any, as it shall think lit.
Section 7. If a defendant in an action at law in either of the courts respectively, being duly served with process does not enter an appearance in writing within ten days from the return day of the writ, a default shall be entered against him, but the court may in any case for good cause extend the time for entering an appearance.
Section 8. Section seven of chapter one hundred and sixty-four of the Public Statutes is amended so as to read as follows : - If after such notice in either case, the defendant does not appear within ten days after the day specified iu such notice for his appearance, a default shall be entered, and judgment thereon may be rendered against him.
Section 9. Section ten of chapter one hundred and eighty-three of the Public Statutes is amended so as to read as follows: - Every person summoned as trustee in the supreme judicial or superior court shall appear and file his answer within ten days after the return day of the writ, unless the court for good cause allows further time therefor.
Section 10. The courts respectively, in their discretion, and upon such terms, if any, as they may think fit, may at any time before judgment strike out a default.
Section 11. At any time after a default has been entered against the defendant in an action at law in either of the courts, the plaintiff may after four days have judgment entered as of course by the clerk without any further order.
Section 12. The courts respectively may make general rules authorizing or directing in such maimer and subject to such provisions as they may think proper the entry of judgment by the clerk without any further order
in all or any of the cases in which judgment may according to the present practice be entered under a general order or at the end of a term as of course.
Section 13. Every judgment, order or decree of the courts respectively shall bear date of the day of the month and the year when the same is entered, but the court may, in its discretion, when justice requires it, enter the same as of a previous day.
Section 14. The time within which an application or affidavit may be made for the removal of an action or petition by virtue of section eight of chapter one hundred and fifty-two, section ten of chapter one hundred and sixty-one, or section thirteen of chapter one hundred and seventy-eight, of the Public Statutes, shall be thirty days after the day for appearance, iustead of the time specified therefor in the said sections respectively.
Section 15. Sections forty-six and forty-seven of chapter one hundred and sixty-seven of the Public Statutes are repealed.
Section 16. Nothing contained in this act shall apply to any criminal business of the superior court nor be construed to affect clerks' fees or taxable costs in civil cases.
Section 17. This act shall take effect on the first day of September, eighteen hundred and eighty-five.
Approved June 19. 1885.