CHAPTER 17.

CONTEMPT.

(Sections 939-945.)

939. What constitutes; common law repealed; appeals; duty of solicitor and attorney general. Any person guilty of any of the following acts may be punished for contempt:

1. Disorderly, contemptuous, or insolent behavior committed dur ing the sitting of any court of justice, in immediate view and presence of the court, and directly tending to interrupt its proceedings, or to impair the respect due to its authority.

2. Behavior of the like character committed in the presence of any referee or referees, while actually engaged in any trial or hearing pursuant to the order of any court, or in the presence of any jury while actually sitting for the trial of a cause, or upon any inquest or other proceeding authorized by law.

3. Any breach of the peace, noise or other disturbance directly tending to interrupt the proceedings of any court.

4. Wilful disobedience of any process or order lawfully issued by

any court.

5. Resistance wilfully offered by any person to the lawful order or process of any court.

6. The contumacious and unlawful refusal of any person to be sworn as a witness, or when so sworn, the like refusal to answer any legal and proper interrogatory.

7. The publication of grossly inaccurate reports of the proceedings in any court, about any trial, or other matter pending before said court, made with intent to misrepresent or to bring into contempt the said court; but no person can be punished as for a contempt in publishing a true, full and fair report of any trial, argument, decision or proceeding had in court.

8. Misbehavior of any officer of the court in any official transaction.

The several acts, neglects and omissions of duty, malfeasances, misfeasances, and nonfeasances, above specified and described, shall be the only acts, neglects and omissions of duty, malfeasances, misfeasances and nonfeasances which shall be the subject of contempt of court. And if there be any parts of the common law now in force in this state which recognized other acts, neglects, omissions of duty, malfeasances, misfeasances and nonfeasances besides those specified and described above, the same are hereby repealed and annulled.

Any person adjudged to be guilty of contempt under this section shall have the right to appeal to the supreme court in the same manner as is provided for appeals in criminal actions: Provided, that such right of appeal shall not apply to the contempt described and defined in subsections one, two, three and six: Provided further, that such right of appeal shall not apply to the contempt described and defined in subsections four and five; if such contempt shall be committed in the presence of the court: Provided further, that in all cases where a rule for contempt is issued by any court, referee or other officer the solicitor shall appear for the court or other officer issuing the rule, and in case of appeal to the supreme court the attorney general shall appear for the court or other officer by whom the rule was issued. Code, s. 648; 1905, c. 449.

940. Punishment. Punishment for contempt for matters set forth in the preceding section shall be by fine not to exceed two hundred and fifty dollars, or imprisonment not to exceed thirty days, or both, in the discretion of the court.

Code, s. 649.

941. Court may punish summarily. Contempt committed in the immediate view and presence of the court may be punished summarily, but the court shall cause the particulars of the offense to be specified on the record, and a copy of the same to be attached to every committal, attachment or process in the nature of an execution founded on such judgment or order.

Code, s. 650.

942. Who may punish. Every justice of the peace, referee, commissioner, clerk of the superior court, inferior court, criminal court, or judge of the superior court, or justice of the supreme court, or board of commissioners of each county, or corporation commissioner, shall have power to punish for contempt while sitting for the trial of causes or engaged in official duties.

Code, ss. 651, 652.

943. Order to show cause when not committed in presence of court. Whenever the contempt shall not have been committed in the immediate presence of the court, or so near as to interrupt its business, proceedings thereupon shall be by an order directing the offender to appear, within reasonable time, and show cause why he should not be attached for contempt. At the time specified in the order, the person charged with the contempt may appear and answer, and, if he fail to appear and show good cause why he should not be attached for the contempt charged, he shall be punished as provided in this chapter.

Code, s. 653.

944. What constitutes offense punished as for contempt. Every court of record shall have power to punish as for contempt, when the act complained of was such as tended to defeat, impair, impede, or prejudice the rights or remedies of a party to an action then pending in court

1. Any clerk, sheriff, register, solicitor, attorney, counsellor, coroner, constable, referee, or any other person in any manner selected or appointed to perform any ministerial or judicial service, for any neglect or violation of duty or any misconduct by which the rights or remedies of any party in a cause or matter pending in such court may be defeated, impaired, delayed or prejudiced for disobedience of any lawful order of any court or judge, or any deceit or abuse of any process or order of any such court or judge.

2. Parties to suits, attorneys, and all other persons for the nonpayment of any sum of money ordered by such court, in cases where execution can not be awarded for the collection of the same.

3. All persons for assuming to be officers, attorneys or counsellors of the court, and acting as such without authority, for receiving any property or person which may be in custody of any officer by virtue of any order or process of the court, for unlawfully detaining any witness or party to any suit, while going to, remaining at, or returning from the court where the same may be set for trial, or for the unlawful interference with the proceedings in any action.

4. All persons summoned as witnesses in refusing or neglecting to obey such summons to attend, be sworn, or answer, as such witness. 5. Parties summoned as jurors for impropriety, conversing with parties or others in relation to an action to be tried at such court or receiving communication therefrom.

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6. All inferior magistrates, officers and tribunals for disobedience any lawful order of the court, or for proceeding in any matter or cause contrary to law, after the same shall have been removed from their jurisdiction.

7. All other cases where attachments and proceedings as for contempt have been heretofore adopted and practiced in courts of record in this state to enforce the civil remedies or protect the rights of any party to an action.

Code, ss. 654, 656.

Note. Any person disobeying order of court, guilty, see s. 684.

945. Proceedings as for contempt, how prosecuted. Proceedings as for contempt shall be prosecuted and carried on, as provided in provisional remedies.

Code, s. 655.

NOTE. For refusal to produce books of corporations, see ss. 1215 et seq.

946. Construed to be in fee, when. When real estate shall be conveyed to any person, the same shall be held and construed to be a conveyance in fee, whether the word "heirs" shall be used or not, unless such conveyance shall, in plain and express words, show, or it shall be plainly intended by the conveyance or some part thereof, that the grantor meant to convey an estate of less dignity.

Code, s. 1280; 1879, c. 148.

Note. Deed and registry of conveyance destroyed, presumed to convey fee-simple, see Evidence, s. 1602.

947. Attornment unnecessary, conveyance of reversions, etc. Every conveyance of any rent, reversion, or remainder in lands, tenements or hereditaments, otherwise sufficient, shall be deemed complete without attornment by the holders of particular estates in said lands: Provided, no holder of a particular estate shall be prejudiced by any act done by him as holding under his grantor, without notice of such conveyance.

Code, s. 1764; 4 Anne, c. 16, s. 9; 1868-9, c. 156, s. 17.

948. Vagueness of description. No deed or other writing purporting to convey land or an interest in land shall be declared void for vagueness in the description of the thing intended to be granted by reason of the use of the word "adjoining" instead of the words "bounded by," or for the reason that the boundaries given do not go entirely around the land described: Provided, it can be made to

appear to the satisfaction of the jury that the grantor owned at the time of the execution of such deed or paper-writing no other land which at all corresponded to the description contained in such deed. or paper-writing.

1891, c. 465, s. 2.

Note. For vagueness of description in pleadings, see s. 1605.

949. Conveyances to slaves. Whenever it is made to appear that any gift or conveyance has been made to any person, while a slave, of any lands or tenements, whether the same shall have been conveyed by deed or parol, and the bargainee or donee has been placed into actual possession of the same, then and in that case such gift or conveyance shall have the force and effect of transferring the legal title to the said lands and tenements to such bargainee or donee: Provided, such possession shall have continued for the term of ten years prior to the ninth day of March, one thousand eight hundred and seventy: Provided further, that any absence from the premises from the first day of May, one thousand eight hundred and sixtyone, to the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, shall not be held as an abandonment or discontinuance of the possession: Provided also, that this section shall not affect the interest of a bona fide purchaser for value from the grantor or bargainor of the lands or tenements in dispute.

Code, s. 1278; 1869-70, c. 77.

II. OFFICER NOT IN OFFICE.

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950. Executed by ex-officer, when. Whenever any sheriff, oner, constable or tax collector by virtue of his office shall have sold any real or personal estate, and shall go out of office before executing a proper conveyance therefor, he may execute the same after his term of office shall have expired.

Code, s. 1267; R. C., c. 37, s. 30.

951. Executed by successor, when. Whenever any sheriff, coroner, constable or tax collector, by virtue of his office shall have sold any real or personal estate, and such officer shall die or remove from the state before executing a proper conveyance therefor, or whenever a sheriff or tax collector shall die having a tax list in his hands for collection, and his personal representative or surety, in collecting such taxes, shall make sale according to law, his successor in such office shall execute conveyances for the property so sold to the person entitled.

Code, s. 1267; 1891, c. 242.

NOTE. See also, s. 2905.