Page images
PDF
EPUB

place he will apply to a judge of the superior court of the county in which such person may be confined, for the purpose of obtaining a discharge from his imprisonment.-1880-114.

1145. Such notice must be served upon the plaintiff, his agent, or attorney, one day at least before the hearing of the application. 1146. At the time and place specified in the notice, such person must be taken before such judge, who must examine him under oath concerning his estate and property and effects, and the disposal thereof, and his ability to pay the judgment for which he is committed; and such judge may also hear any other legal and pertinent evidence that may be produced by the debtor or the creditor.

1147. The plaintiff in the action may, upon such examination, propose to the prisoner any interrogatories pertinent to the inquiry, and they must, if required by him, be proposed and answered in writing, and the answer must be signed and sworn to by the pris

oner.

1148. If, upon the examination, the judge is satisfied that the prisoner is entitled to his discharge, he must administer to him the following oath, to wit: "I, do solemly swear that I have not any estate, real or personal, to the amount of fifty dollars, except such as is by law exempted from being taken in execution; and that I have not any other estate now conveyed or concealed, or in any way disposed of, with design to secure the same to my use, or to hinder, delay, or defraud my creditors, so help me God.".

1149. After administering the oath, the judge must issue an order that the prisoner be discharged from custody, and the officer, upon the service of such order, must discharge the prisoner forthwith, if he be imprisoned for no other cause.

1150. If such judge does not discharge the prisoner, he may apply for his discharge at the end of every succeeding ten days, in the same manner as above provided, and the same proceedings must thereupon be had.

1151. The prisoner, after being so discharged, is forever exempted from arrest or imprisonment for the same debt, unless he be convicted of having willfully sworn falsely upon his examination before the judge, or in taking the oath before prescribed.

1152. The judgment against any prisoner who is discharged remains in full force against any estate which may then or at any time afterward belong to him, and the plaintiff may take out a new execution against the goods and estate of the prisoner, in like manner as if he had never been committed.

1153. The plaintiff in the action may at any time order the prisoner to be discharged, and he is not thereafter liable to imprisonment for the same cause of action.

1154. Whenever a person is committed to jail on an execution issued on a judgment recovered in a civil action, the creditor, his agent, or attorney must advance to the jailer, on such commitment, sufficient money for the support of the prisoner for one week, and must make the like advance for every successive week of his imprisonment; and in case of failure to do so, the jailer must forthwith

discharge such prisoner from custody, and such discharge has the same effect as if made by order of the creditor.

CHAPTER IV.

Summary Proceedings for Obtaining Possession of Real Property in Certain Cases.

[blocks in formation]

1159. Every person is guilty of a forcible entry who either1. By breaking open doors, windows, or other parts of a house, or by any kind of violence or circumstance of terror enters upon or into any real property; or,

2. Who, after entering peaceably upon real property, turns out by force, threats, or menacing conduct, the party in possession.

1160. Every person is guilty of a forcible detainer who either1. By force, or by menaces and threats of violence, unlawfully holds and keeps the possession of any real property, whether the same was acquired peaceably or otherwise; or,

2. Who, in the night-time, or during the absence of the occupant of any lands, unlawfully enters upon real property, and who, after demand made for the surrender thereof, for the period of five days, refuses to surrender the same to such former occupant.

The occupant of real property, within the meaning of this subdivision, is one who, within five days preceding such unlawful entry, was in the peaceable and undisturbed possession of such lands.

1161. A tenant of real property, for a term less than life, is guilty of unlawful detainer:

1. When he continues in possession, in person or by subtenant, of the property, or any part thereof, after the expiration of the term for which it is let to him, without the permission of his landlord, or the successor in estate of his landlord, if any there be; but in case of tenancy at will it must first be terminated by notice, as prescribed in the Civil Code.

2. When he continues in possession, in person or by sub

tenant, without the permission of his landlord, or the successor in estate of his landlord, if any there be, after default in the payment of rent, pursuant to the lease or agreement under which the property is held, and three days' notice in writing, requiring its payment stating the amount which is due, or possession of the property, shall have been served upon him and if there is a subtenant in actual occupation of the premises, also upon such subtenant.

Such notice may be served at any time within one year after the rent becomes due. In all cases of tenancy upon agricultural lands, where the tenant has held over and retained possession for more than sixty days after the expiration of the term without any demand of possession or notice to quit by the landlord or the successor in estate of his landlord, if any there be, he shall be deemed to be holding by permission of the landlord, or the successor in estate of his landlord, if any there be, and shall be entitled to hold under the terms of the lease for another full year, and shall not be guilty of an unlawful detainer during said year, and such holding over for the period aforesaid shall be taken and construed as a consent on the part of a tenant to hold for another

year.

or

3. When he continues in possession, in person or by subtenant, after a neglect or failure to perform other conditions or covenants of the lease or agreement under which the property is held, including any covenant not to assign or sublet, than the one for the payment of rent, and three days' notice, in writing, requiring the performance of such conditions or covenants, the possession of the property, shall have been served upon him, and if there is a subtenant in actual occupation of the premises, also, upon such subtenant. Within three days after the service of the notice, the tenant, or any subtenant in actual occupation of the premises, or any mortgagee of the term, or other person interested in its continuance, may perform the conditions or covenants of the lease or pay the stipulated rent, as the case may be, and thereby save the lease from forfeiture; provided, if the conditions and covenants of the lease, violated by the lessee, cannot afterward be performed, then no notice, as last prescribed herein, need be given to said lessee or his subtenant, demanding the performance of the violated conditions or covenants of the lease.

A tenant may take proceedings, similar to those prescribed in this chapter, to obtain possession of the premises let to a subtenant, in case of his unlawful detention of the premises underlet to him.

4. Any tenant or subtenant assigning or subletting or committing waste upon the demised premises, contrary to the conditions or covenants of his lease, thereby terminates the lease, and the landlord, or his successor in estate, shall upon service of three days' notice to quit upon the person or persons in possession, be entitled to restitution of possession of such demised premises under the provisions of this chapter.-1905-29.

1162. The notices required by the preceding section may be served, either:

1. By delivering a copy to the tenant personally; or,

2. If he be absent from his place of residence, and from his usual place of business, by leaving a copy with some person of suitable age and discretion at either place, and sending a copy through the mail addressed to the tenant at his place of residence;

or,

3. If such place of residence and business cannot be ascertained. or a person of suitable age or discretion there cannot be found, then by affixing a copy in a conspicuous place on the property, and also delivering a copy to a person there residing, if such person can be found; and also sending a copy through the mail addressed to the tenant at the place where the property is situated. Service upon a subtenant may be made in the same manner.-1873-347.

1163. The superior court of the county in which the property, or some part of it, is situated, shall have jurisdiction of proceedings under this chapter; provided, that justices' courts, within their respective townships or cities, or cities and counties, shall have concurrent jurisdiction with the superior courts in cases of forcible entry and detainer, when the rental value does not exceed twenty-five dollars per month and when the whole amount of damages claimed does not exceed two hundred dollars.-1880-8.

1164. No person other than the tenant of the premises and subtenant, if there be one, in the actual occupation of the premises when the complaint is filed, need be made parties defendant in the proceeding, nor shall any proceeding abate, nor the plaintiff be nonsuited for the nonjoinder of any person who might have been made party defendant, but when it appears that any of the parties served with process, or appearing in the proceeding, are guilty of the offense charged, judgment must be rendered against him. In case a defendant has become a subtenant of the premises in controversy, after the service of the notice provided for by part two of section eleven hundred and sixty-one of this code, upon the tenant of the premises, the fact that such notice was not served on each subtenant shall constitute no defense to the action. In case a married woman be a tenant, or a subtenant, her coverture shall constitute no defense; but in case her husband be not joined, or unless she be doing business as a sole trader, an execution issued upon a personal judgment against her can only be enforced against property on the premises at the commencement of the action. All persons who enter the premises under the tenant, after the commencement of the suit, shall be bound by the judgment, the same as if he or they had been made party to the action.-1885-129.

1165. Except as provided in the preceding section, the provisions of part two of this code, relating to parties to civil actions, are applicable to this proceeding.

1166. The plaintiff, in his complaint, which shall be verified, must set forth the facts on which he seeks to recover, and describe the premises with reasonable certainty, and may set forth therein any circumstances of fraud, force, or violence which may have accompanied the alleged forcible entry or forcible or uniawful detainer, and claim damages therefor. In case the unlawful detainer charged is after default in the payment of rent, the complaint must state the amount of such rent. Upon filing the complaint, a summons must be issued thereon.--1907-322.

1167. The summons must require the defendant to appear and answer within three days after the service of the summons upon him, and must notify him that if he fails to so appear and answer, the plaintiff will apply to the court for the relief demanded in the complaint. In all other respects the summons, or any alias

summons in such proceedings, must be issued and served and returned in the same manner as summons in a civil action.-1907-323.

1168. If the complaint presented establishes, to the satisfaction of the judge or justice, fraud, force, or violence, in the entry or detainer, and that the possession held is unlawful, he may make an order for the arrest of the defendant.-1880-9.

1169. If, at the time appointed, the defendant do not appear and defend, the court must enter his default and render judgment in favor of the plaintiff as prayed for in the complaint.

1170. On or before the day fixed for his appearance, the defendant may appear and answer or demur.

1171. Whenever an issue of fact is presented by the pleadings, it must be tried by a jury, unless such jury be waived as in other cases. The jury shall be formed in the same manner as other trial juries in the court in which the action is pending.-1880-9.

1172. On the trial of any proceeding for any forcible entry or forcible detainer, the plaintiff shall only be required to show, in addition to the forcible entry or forcible detainer complained of, that he was peaceably in the actual possession at the time of the forcible entry, or was entitled to the possession at the time of the forcible detainer. The defendant may show in his defense that he or his ancestors, or those whose interest in such premises he claims, have been in the quiet possession thereof for the space of one whole year together next before the commencement of the proceedings, and that his interest therein is not then ended or determined; and such showing is a bar to the proceedings.

1173. When, upon the trial of any proceeding under this chapter, it appears from the evidence that the defendant has been guilty of either a forcible entry or a forcible or unlawful detainer, and other than the offense charged in the complaint, the judge must order that such complaint be forthwith amended to conform to such proofs; such amendment must be made without any imposition of terms. No continuance shall be permitted upon account of such amendment unless the defendant, by affidavit filed, shows to the satisfaction of the court good cause therefor.-1885-102.

1174. If, upon the trial, the verdict of the jury, or, if the case be tried without a jury, the finding of the court be in favor of the plaintiff and against the defendant judgment shall be entered for the restitution of the premises; and if the proceedings be for an unlawful detainer after neglect, or failure to perform the conditions or covenants of the lease or agreement under which the property is held, or after default in the payment of rent, the judgment shall also declare the forfeiture of such lease or agreement. The jury or the court, if the proceeding be tried without a jury, shall also assess the damages occasioned to the plaintiff by any forcible entry, or by any forcible or unlawful detainer, alleged in the complaint and proved on the trial, and find the amount of any rent due, if the alleged unlawful detainer be after default in the payment of rent. Judgment against the defendant guilty of the forcible entry, or forcible or unlawful detainer may be entered in the discretion of the court either for the amount of the damages and rent found due, or for three times the amount so found. When the proceeding is for an unlawful detainer after default in the payment of rent, and

« PreviousContinue »