seems fit; and in that case the Court may direct proceedings to be taken and carried on by petition in the ordinary way.
47. If the defendant does not so obtain leave to defend, the plaintiff, on proof of due service of the summons, shall be entitled as of course at any time after the expiration of such seven days, to an immediate absolute decree for any sum not exceeding the sum indorsed on the summons, together with interest at the rate specified (if any) to the date of the decree, and a sum for costs to be fixed by the Court in the decree.
48. After decree the Court may, under special circumstances, set aside the decree, and may, if necessary, set aside execution, and may give leave to defend the suit if it appears to the Court reasonable so to do, and on such terms as to the Court may seem just.
49. In any proceeding under the present provisions, it shall be competent to the Court to order the Bill or Note sought to be proceeded on to be forthwith deposited in the Court, and to order that all proceedings be stayed until the plaintiff gives security for costs.
50. The holder of a dishonored Bill or Note shall have the same remedies for recovery of the expenses incurred in the noting of the same for non-acceptance or non-payment, or incurred otherwise by reason of the dishonor, as he has under the present provisions for recovery of the amount of the Bill or Note.
51. The holder of a Bill or Note may, if he thinks fit, obtain one summons under the present provisions against all or any of the parties to the Bill or Note; and such summons shall be the commencement of a suit or suits against the parties therein named respectively; and all subsequent proceedings against such respective parties shall be carried on, as far as may be, as if separate summonses had issued. But the summons or its indorsement must set forth the claims against the parties respectively, according to their respective alleged liabilities, with sufficient precision and certainty to enable each defendant to set up any defence on which he individually may desire to rely.
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Institution of Formal Suit.
52. All suits for the recovery of money, goods or other property of the amount or value of Five hundred Dollars and upwards, or relating to or involving directly or indirectly a question respecting any matter at issue of the amount or value of Five hundred Dollars and upwards, or for the recovery of damages of the amount of Five hundred Dollars and upwards, shall be commenced by a petition which shall be filed in the Court and entered in a book to be kept for the purpose, and called the "Register of Civil Suits;" and the entries shall be numbered in each year according to the order in which the petition is presented.
53. The petition shall contain the name, description and place of abode of the plaintiff and of the defendant so far as they can be ascertained, and a narrative of the material facts, matters, and circumstances on which the plaintiff relies, such narrative being divided into paragraphs numbered consecutively, each paragraph containing, as nearly as may be, a separate and distinct statement or allegation, and shall pray specifically for the relief to which the plaintiff may conceive himself entitled, and also for general relief.
The petition must be as brief as may be consistent with a clear statement of the facts on which the prayer is sought to be supported, and with information to the defendant of the nature of the claim set up.
Documents must not be unnecessarily set out in the petition in hæc verba, but so much only of them as is pertinent and material may be set out, or the effect and substance of so much only of them as is pertinent and material may be given, without needless prolixity.
Dates and sums shall be expressed in figures and not in words.
The petition may not contain any statement of the mere evidence by which the facts alleged are intended to be proved, and may not contain any argument of law.
The facts material to the establishment of the plaintiff's right to recover shall be alleged positively, briefly, and as clearly as may be, so as to enable the defendant by his answer either to admit or deny any one or more of the material allegations, or else to admit the truth of any or all of the allegations, or to set forth some other substantive matter in his answer, by reason of which he intends to contend that the right of the plaintiff to recover or to any relief capable of being granted on the petition has not yet accrued or is released or barred or otherwise gone.
54. The petition must be signed by counsel except where the plaintiff sues in forma pauperis or obtains the leave of the Court to dispense with such signature.
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