sions in relation to the same were made, shall not, nor shall the adverse party, be incompetent to testify because some of the parties or joint contractors, or those jointly entitled or liable, have died or otherwise. become incapable of testifying.

Sec. 1067. CONVICTION OF CRIME.-No person shall be incompetent to testify, in either civil or criminal proceedings, by reason of his having been convicted of crime [other than perjury], but such fact may be given in evidence to affect his credit as a witness, either upon the cross-examination of the witness or by evidence aliunde; and the party cross-examining him shall not be concluded by his answers as to such matters. In order to prove such conviction of crime it shall not be necessary to produce the whole record of the proceedings containing such conviction, but the certificate, under seal, of the clerk of the court wherein such proceedings were had, stating the fact of the conviction and for what cause, shall be sufficient.

Sec. 1068. HUSBAND AND WIFE.-In both civil and criminal proceedings, husband and wife shall be competent but not compellable to testify for or against each other.

Sec. 1069. CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNICATIONS.-In neither civil nor criminal proceedings shall a husband or his wife be competent to testify as to any confidential communications made by one to the other during the marriage.

Sec. 1070. RECORD DEBT, PROOF OF.--An exemplification of the record under the hand of the keeper of the same, and the seal of the court or office where such record may be made, shall be good and sufficient evidence to prove any record made or entered in any of the States or Territories of the United States; and the certificate of the party purporting to be the keeper of such record, accompanied by such seal, shall be prima facie evidence of that fact.

Sec. 1071. RECORD OF DEEDS AND WILLS.-The copy of the record of any deed or other instrument of writing, not of a testamentary character, where the laws of the State, Territory, or country where the same may be recorded require such record, and which has been recorded agreeably to such laws, and the copy of any will which such laws require to be admitted to probate and record, by judicial decree, and of the decree of the court admitting the same to probate and record, under the hand of the clerk or other keeper of such record and the seal of the court or office in which such record has been made, shall be good and sufficient prima facie evidence to prove the existence and contents of such deed, or will, or other instrument of writing, and that it was executed as it purports to have been.

Sec. 1072. PRODUCTION OF BOOKS AND PAPERS.-In an action at common law the court may, on motion, and on reasonable notice thereof, require the parties to produce books and writings in their possession or power, which contain evidence pertinent to the issue, in cases and under circumstances where they might heretofore have been compelled to produce the same by the ordinary rules of proceeding in chancery.

Sec. 1073. PHYSICIANS, TESTIMONY OF.-In the courts of the District of Columbia no physician or surgeon shall be permitted, without the consent of the person afflicted, or of his legal representatives, to disclose any information, confidential in its nature, which he shall have

acquired in attending a patient in a professional capacity and which was necessary to enable him to act in that capacity: Provided, That this section shall not apply to evidence in criminal cases where the accused is charged with causing the death of or inflicting injuries upon a human being, and the disclosure shall be required in the interests of public justice.

Sec. 1073a. Whenever the court shall be satisfied that the party producing a witness has been taken by surprise by the testimony of such witness, such party may, in the discretion of the court, be allowed to prove, for the purpose only of affecting the credibility of the witness, that the witness has made to such party or to his attorney statements substantially variant from his sworn testimony about material facts in the cause; but before such proof can be given the circumstances of the supposed statement sufficient to designate the particular occasion must be mentioned to the witness, and he must be asked whether or not he made such statenfents and if so allowed to explain- them.-Act of June 30, 1902.

CHAPTER XXVI.

EXECUTION.

Sec. 1074. WHEN ISSUED.-Where the right to issue an execution is not suspended by agreement or by an injunction or by an appeal operating as a supersedeas, a writ of execution may be issued immediately on the rendition of the judgment or at any time within three years thereafter; and where the right to issue the same is suspended by any of the causes aforesaid said writ may be issued within three years after the removal of the suspension, and every such writ shall be returnable on or before the sixtieth day after its date.

Sec. 1075. ALIAS WRITS.-If the execution be issued and returned unsatisfied, in whole or in part, within said period of three years, an alias writ may be issued at any time during the life of the judgment.

Sec. 1076. RETURN.-If the return shall be omitted to be made on or before the return day expressed in the writ it may nevertheless be made afterwards as of that date.

Sec. 1077. SCIRE FACIAS.-If said writ shall not be issued within the time allowed therefor, as aforesaid, it shall not be issued until a scire facias has been issued upon said judgment and a fiat has been rendered thereupon. Said fiat shall be deemed a renewal of the judgment, and the same rule shall apply thereto in relation to the issuing of execution thereon as to the original judgment.

Sec. 1078. FIAT.-At any time during the life of the original judg ment the plaintiff may elect, instead of issuing execution thereon within the time allowed therefor, to issue a scire facias on the same and obtain a new judgment as aforesaid.

Sec. 1079. LIEN OF EXECUTION.-A writ of fieri facias issued upon a judgment of the supreme court of the District shall be a lien from the time of its delivery to the marshal upon all the goods and chattels of the judgment defendant, except such as may be exempted from levy and sale by express provision of law, and shall also be a lien upon the equitable interest of the judgment defendant in goods and chattels in his possession.

Sec. 1080. DEATH OF DEBTOR.-The death of the judgment debtor after the execution has been delivered to the marshal shall not affect his authority to proceed against the property bound by it.

Sec. 1081. JUDGMENT OF JUSTICE OF THE PEACE.-An execution issued on a judgment of a justice of the peace shall not be a lien on the personal property of the judgment defendant except from the time when it is actually levied, and then it shall have priority over any execution

issued out of said supreme court after said levy. It shall not be levied on real estate.

Sec. 1082. ON WHAT FIERI FACIAS MAY BE LEVIED. The writ of fieri facias may be levied on all goods and chattels of the debtor not exempt as aforesaid, and upon gold and silver coin, bank notes or other money, bills, checks, promissory notes or bonds, or certificates of stock in corporations owned by said debtor, and upon money owned by him in the hands of the marshal or of a constable charged with the execution of such writ, and such fieri facias issued from said supreme court may be levied on all legal leasehold and freehold estates of the debtor in land.

Sec. 1083. LEVY ON MONEY.-If the fieri facias is levied on money belonging to the judgment defendant the marshal shall not expose the same to sale, but shall account for it as money collected, but bills or other evidences of debt levied upon shall be sold as other personal property is sold, and the marshal is hereby authorized and empowered to indorse the same to pass title to the purchaser.

Sec. 1084. LEVY ON CHATTELS PLEDGED.-The interest of the debtor in personal chattels lawfully pledged for the payment of a debt or performance of a contract, or held by a trustee and in which the debtor's interest is only equitable, may be levied upon in the hands of the pledgee or trustee without disturbing the possession of the latter, and the lien thus obtained may be enforced by proceedings in equity. In other cases of equitable interest of the judgment debtor in personal chattels execution may also be levied thereon and the lien thus obtained may be enforced by proceedings in equity.

Sec. 1085. APPRAISEMENT. Where not herein otherwise provided, all property levied upon, except money, shall be appraised by two sworn appraisers and sold at public auction for cash; personal property after ten days' notice by advertisement, and leasehold and freehold estate in land after a twenty days' previous notice by advertisement, containing a description sufficiently definite to be embodied in a conveyance of

the title.

Sec. 1086. ATTACHMENT, WHEN ISSUED.-An attachment may be issued upon a judgment either before or after or at the same time with a fieri facias: Provided, That if costs are unnecessarily multiplied thereby they shall be charged to the party causing the same to be issued.

Sec. 1087. SCIRE FACIAS UNNECESSARY. -The said attachment may be issued at any time during the life of the judgment, without issuing a scire facias previously thereto.

Sec. 1088. ON WHAT ATTACHMENT MAY BE LEVIED.-An attachment may be levied upon the judgment debtor's goods, chattels, and credits.Act of June 30, 1902.

[Sec. 1088. ON WHAT ATTACHMENT MAY BE LEVIED.-An attachment may be levied upon the judgment debtor's credits due him from third persons and upon his interest in letters patent for inventions issued by the United States.]

Sec. 1089. INTERROGATORIES.-In all cases of attachment the plaintiff may exhibit interrogatories in writing, in such form as may be allowed by the rules or special order of the court, to be served upon any garnishee concerning any property of the defendant in his possession or charge or any indebtedness of his to the defendant at the time of

the service of the attachment or between the time of such service and the filing of his answers to said interrogatories; and the garnishee shall file his answers, under oath, to such interrogatories within ten days after service of the same upon him. In addition to the answers to written interrogatories required of him, the garnishee may, on motion, be required to appear in court and be examined orally, under oath, touching any property or credits of the defendant in his hands.

Sec. 1090. How ATTACHMENTS LEVIED. The attachment shall be levied upon credits of the defendant in the hands of a garnishee by serving him with a copy of the writ of attachment and of the interrogatories accompanying the same, and a notice that any property or credits of the defendant in his hands are seized by virtue of the attachment. It may be levied upon debts due to the defendant upon any judgment or decree by a similar service upon the debtor owing the same.

Sec. 1091. MONEY IN HANDS OF AN OFFICER.-The said attachment may be levied upon money or property of the defendant in the hands of the marshal or coroner, and shall bind the same from the time of service, and shall be a legal excuse to the officer for not paying or delivering the same as he would otherwise be bound to do. The attachment may also be levied upon money or property of the defendant in the hands of an executor or administrator, and shall bind the same from the time of service; but if the executor or administrator shall make return to the writ that he can not certainly answer whether the defendant's share of the money or property in his hands will prove sufficient to pay the plaintiff's debt, no judgment of condemnation shall be rendered as against such executor or administrator until the passage by the orphans' court of his final or other account showing money or property in his hands to which the defendant is entitled.

[Sec. 1092. HoW LEVIED ON PATENT RIGHTS.—The said attachment may be levied upon any patent right of the defendant by the marshal by leaving a copy of the writ with the Commissioner of Patents, with a notice that he has seized said patent rights, and for what purpose, and he shall return a copy of said notice with the writ. The said notice shall thereupon be recorded in the record of assignments in the Patent Office.]

Sec. 1093. PRESERVATION OF PROPERTY SEIZED.-The court may make all orders necessary for the preservation of the property attached, and if the same be perishable, or for other reasons a sale of the same shall be expedient, may order that the same be sold and the proceeds. paid into court and held subject to its order.

Sec. 1094. PLEADING TO THE ATTACHMENT.-Any garnishee or stranger to the suit who may make claim to the property attached as hereinafter provided, may plead to the attachment, and such plea shall be considered as raising an issue without replication, and any issue of fact thereby made may be tried by the court or by a jury impaneled for the purpose, if either party desire it.

Sec. 1095. TRAVERSING GARNISHEE'S ANSWERS.-If any garnishee shall answer to interrogatories that he has no property or credits of the defendant or less than the amount of the plaintiff's judgment, the plaintiff may traverse such answer as to the existence or amount of such property or credits, and the issue thereby made may be tried as provided in the last aforesaid section; and in such case, where judg ment is rendered for the garnishee, the plaintiff shall be adjudged to