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An Act establishing Pounds.

Each town to maintain a pound-penalty for neglect.

It is enacted by the General Assembly, as follows:

Each town shall erect and maintain at its own charge, one or more public pounds, for the impounding of horses, mules, neat cattle, sheep, goats, hogs and asses, and for the securing of such animals agreeably to law, in some convenient place or places in such town, on the penalty of forfeiting the sum of thirty dollars for such neglect, to and for the use of the

state.

An Act for Impounding certain Animals in certain cases, and for recovering damages that shall be done by them.

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8. Person impounding may have his action for damages.

9. Owners may replevy.

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Before person aggrieved proceeds by action, he shall have the damages appraised.

18. Cattle breaking through unlawful division fence, owner of fence liable.

It is enacted by the General Assembly, as follows:

SECTION 1. If any neat cattle, horses, sheep or hogs shall break through a lawful fence into the enclosure of any person, the person aggrieved thereby may recover his damages either by action against the owner of the trespassing beasts, or by impounding such beasts.

SEC. 2. The party aggrieved, in order to be entitled to recover damages, either by action or impounding, shall within two days after such beasts break into his enclosure get two freeholders of the town wherein the trespass is committed, to appraise the damage, and give a statement thereof in writing, under their hands, and shall lodge the same with the pound keeper.

SEC. 3. When beasts are impounded the pound keeper shall within forty-eight hours thereafter give notice thereof in writing to the owner, if the owner shall be known to him and

resides within six miles from the pound; which notice shall be delivered to the owner or left at his place of abode, and shall contain a description of the beasts and a statement of the time and cause of impounding; and in case the owner shall not be so known or resides more than six miles from the pound, the person impounding shall post up such notice in three public places in the town in which the beasts are impounded.

SEC. 4. If the owner of such beasts impounded as aforesaid shall not within ten days after the impounding thereof pay and satisfy the damages appraised as aforesaid, and the charges of impounding and feeding said beasts, or shall not replevy the same, the pound keeper shall cause them to be sold at vendue in the town where they are impounded; first advertising the sale by giving personal notice to the owner of said beasts if he is known, and if he is not known, by posting notices of such sale, at least three days before said sale, in three public places in the town in which said beasts are impounded.

SEC. 5. The proceeds of sale, after paying all the said damages, costs and expenses, with the costs of advertising and selling the beasts, shall be paid into the town treasury for the use of the owner of said beasts, if he shall substantiate his claim thereto within two years from the sale.

SEC. 6. The pound keeper shall feed such beasts so impounded at the charge of the owner thereof; and he shall not deliver them to the owner until the owner pays him his fees, together with the sum demanded for damages, and all other legal costs and expenses.

SEC. 7. The pound keeper shall be allowed as his fee for impounding, for each neat beast or horse, four cents; for each hog or sheep, two cents; and for each notification set up or notice given to the owner, twenty-five cents; and four cents per mile for travel in giving personal notice, to be computed from the pound to the place of service.

SEC. 8. If the owner of such beasts so impounded shall within two days after they are impounded demand of and receive from the pound keeper such beasts, and pay him his charges, and the person impounding has not lodged with the pound keeper a statement of damages, he may have his action at law for such damages, provided, he shall perform all the requisitions and proceedings mentioned in the second section of this act.

SEC. 9. Any person whose beasts are impounded, may if he see cause maintain a writ of replevin therefor, to be sued

out and prosecuted before any justice of the peace in the town where they were impounded.

SEC. 10. The writ shall be sued out, served and returned, and the cause shall be heard and determined, in like manner as other civil actions before a justice of the peace, in all particulars in which a different course is not prescribed.

SEC. 11. The writ shall not be served unless the plaintiff or some one in his behalf, shall execute and deliver to the officer a bond to the defendant, with sufficient sureties, to be approved by the officer, in a penalty double the value of the beasts to be replevied, with condition to prosecute the replevin to final judgment, and to pay such damages and costs as the defendant shall recover againt him, and also to return the said beasts in case such shall be the final judgment; which bond the officer shall return with the writ to be left with the justice for the use of the defendant.

SEC. 12. If it shall appear that the beasts were lawfully impounded, the defendant shall have judgment for such sum as shall be found due from the plaintiff for the damages for which the beasts were impounded, together with all the legal fees, costs, charges and expenses, and the costs of the action of replevin; or instead of such judgment the justice may in his discretion enter judgment for a return of the beasts to the defendant, to be held by him irrepleviable by the plaintiff, and for the defendant's damages for the taking thereof by the replevin and for his costs of suit. In case the plaintiff in replevin shall not enter his suit in replevin, the defendant may file his complaint before the justice and have judgment against the plaintiff as afore provided.

SEC. 13. When the beasts are returned to the defendant pursuant to such judgment, they shall be held and disposed of in like manner as if they had not been replevied.

SEC. 14. If it shall appear upon the default of the defendant or otherwise, that the beasts were taken without sufficient or justifiable cause, the plaintiff shall have judgment for his damages caused by the unjust taking and detaining of the beasts, and for his costs of suit.

SEC. 15. Either party may appeal from the final judgment of the justice, as in other civil actions tried before a justice of the peace.

SEC. 16. When the sum demanded for damages exceeds twenty dollars, or when the property in the beasts is in question, and their value exceeds that sum, or when title to real estate is brought in question, the case shall, at the request of either party, be transferred to the court of common pleas in

the same county, and be there disposed of in like manner as civil actions before justices of the peace are disposed of, where title to real estate is brought in question by the pleadings.

SEC. 17. If the aggrieved person shall proceed by action against the owner or keeper of the trespassing beasts, he shall get two disinterested inhabitants of the same town wherein the trespass was committed to appraise the damages, and to give him a memorandum thereof in writing under their hands, which certificate shall be attached to his writ, and shall make an essential part thereof; and under no circumstances shall he recover of the defendant in such action a greater amount of damages than the amount named in such certificate.

SEC. 18. Nothing in this act contained shall be construed to impair the right of any proprietor or occupant of land to recover all the damages which he shall sustain by any cattle, sheep, horses or hogs breaking into his land, through that part of the division fence between him and the adjoining owner, which it is the right and duty of such adjoining owner to repair, if such part of said division fence shall at the time be out of repair or not conformable to law.

An Act to prevent certain Animals from going at large.

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It is enacted by the General Assembly, as follows :

SECTION 1. If any horse, neat cattle, sheep or hog shall be going at large in any highway or common, it shall be lawful for any freeholder or qualified elector of the town within which such animal is at large, to take up such animal and impound the same in one of the public pounds of said town.

SEC. 2. It shall be the duty of the keeper of any pound in which any animal shall be impounded, for the cause set forth in the preceding section, to receive, and keep and feed such animal in such pound; and he shall and may duly milk any cow so impounded for his own use.

SEC. 3. The owner of any animal so impounded shall

not have the same out of said pound, until he shall first pay to the pound-keeper the expenses of keeping such animal; no regard being had to the milk derived from the same; the pound-keeper's fees, to wit: for receiving the same into the pound, for each horse and neat-beast, four cents; and for each sheep and hog, two cents; for every notification set up or notice given to the owner, twenty-five cents; and the following penalties, to wit: for every horse, neat-beast and hog, fifty cents, and for every sheep, ten cents.

SEC. 4. The pound-keeper shall pay one half part of every sum received by him as a penalty, in pursuance of the preceding section, to the town treasurer of the town in which the pound is situated, and the other half to the person who impounded the animal.

SEC. 5. When any animal shall have continued in any pound for forty-eight hours, the pound-keeper shall, within forty-eight hours thereafter, set up notifications in at least three public places in the same town with said pound; one of which shall be at or near the office of the town clerk of such town, describing the natural and artificial marks, if any, on such animal, or shall give notice in writing to the owner of such animal; and if no owner shall appear within twenty days from the date of such notifications or notice, and pay the penalty and charges aforesaid, then the said pound-keeper shall deliver the said animal to the treasurer of such town, with a statement in writing of the time and manner in which the said animal was impounded, and of the proceedings of such pound-keeper in relation to the same; together with an account of the charges and expenses due from the owner of such animal to said pound-keeper by virtue of this act; and if said treasurer shall find the proceedings of said poundkeeper correct, he shall sell said animal at public auction, after giving reasonable notice of such sale; and shall, out of the proceeds of such sale, pay the incidental expenses of such sale, the cost of keeping such animal, after the same was delivered to him by the pound-keeper for sale, the expenses and charges aforesaid, the expenses and the penalty aforesaid, and in the order above, if the proceeds of the sale be not sufficient to pay the whole thereof.

SEC. 6. Any town may at a legal meeting pass a vote exempting itself or any part thereof from the operation of this act; after which this act, in such town or such part thereof, shall be of no effect; but the common law shall still remain in force.

SEC. 7. Any town may at any legal meeting pass a vote

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