of witnesses.

proceeding authorized by its rules and regulations. Each commissioner of the board, the superintendent of police, the chief clerk and deputy clerk, are hereby authorized and empowered to administer oaths and affirmations to any persons summoned and appearing in any matter or proceeding authorized as aforesaid, or to take any deposition necessary to be made under the orders, rules and regulations of the board, or for the purposes of this act. Any willful and corrupt false swearing by any witness or person to any material fact, in any necessary proceeding under the said orders, rules and regulations, or under this act shall be deemed willful perjury, and punished in the manner now prescribed by law for such offense.

D. Sec. 983, 2254. Act 1869, p. 92.

Sec. 3977. The coroner may summon witnesses at such time Examination and place as he shall direct; the persons summoned shall, for non-attendance or refusal to testify, be subject to the same penalties, to be expressed in the summons, as if they had been served with a subpena on behalf of the State to attend a justice's court. It shall be the duty of the coroner, if adjudged necessary either by himself or by a majority of the jury, in order to ascertain the cause of death, to order a post mortem examination, whether surgical only, or chemical also, to be made on the body of the subject of the inquisition, by competent medical practitioners; and Post mortem the expense of such post mortem examination shall be paid by the parish or municipal authorities within whose jurisdiction the inquest shall be held.

examinations.

Oath of witnesses.

D. Sec. 660. Aet 1868, p. 206.

Sec. 3978. The coroner shall administer the following oath to all witnesses:

"You solemnly swear that the evidence you are required to give on this inquest shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth; so help you God.”

D. Sec. 661.

Sec. 3979. The testimony of all witnesses examined on an Testimony in inquest shall be reduced to writing and subscribed by the wit

writing.

of witnesses.

nesses.

D. Sec. 662, 1091.

Sec. 3980. If the jury find that any murder or manslaughter Recognizance has been committed on the deceased, the coroner shall bind over, by recognizance, such witnesses as he shall think proper, to appear and testify at the next court to be held in the parish at which an indictment for such an offense can be found; he shall also return to the court the inquisition, written evidence, and all recognizances and examination by him taken, and may commit to the jail of the parish any witnesses who shall refuse to recognize in such manner as he shall direct.

D. Sec. 664, 1093.

Married wom

certain cases,

Sec. 3981. All married women in this State, over the age of twenty-one years may, by and with the authorization of their husbands, borrow money or contract debts for their separate benefit en may, in and advantage; and to secure the same, grant mortgages or other contract debts securities affecting their separate estate, paraphernal or dotal; mortgages. Provided, It is done in the form and for the objects presented in Proviso. the following sections of this act.

C. C. 126; D. Sec. 1713, 2432. Act 1855, p. 254.

and

the judge.

Sec. 3982. In carrying out the power to borrow money or contract debts, the wife, in order to bind herself or her separate or Examination dotal property, must be examined at chambers by the judge of to be made by the district or parish in which she resides, separate and apart from her husband, touching the objects for which the money is to be borrowed or debt to be contracted, and if he shall ascertain either the one or the other are for her husband's debts, or for his separate benefit or advantage, or for the benefit of his separate estate, or for the community, the said judge shall not give his sanction authorizing the wife to perform the acts or incur the liabilities set forth in the preceding section of this act.

C. C. 127; D. Sec. 1714, 2438.

certain cases

Sec. 3983. In case the wife shall satisfy the judge aforesaid that Certificate to the money about to be borrowed or debt contracted is solely for be granted in her separate advantage, or for the benefit of her separate or dotal by judge to be property, then the judge shall furnish her with a certificate setting notary.

presented to

forth his having made such examination of the wife, as required by the foregoing section of this act, which certificate, on presentation to a notary, shall be his authority for drawing an act of mortgage or other act which may be required for the security of the debt contracted, and shall be annexed to the act, which act, when proot against executed, as herein provided for, shall furnish full proof against her and her heirs and be as binding in law and equity in all courts of this State, and have the same effect, as if made by a femme sole.

Act to be full

her and her heirs.

Widows and unmarried

C. C. 128; D. Sec. 1715, 2434.

Sec. 3984. It shall be lawful for the widows and unmarried women of age to bind themselves as sureties or indorsers for other women author persons in the same manner and with the same validity as men who are of full

ized to bind

themselves.

Manner in

which married women may renounce in

persons.

age.

́C. C. 1782 (1775); D. Sec. 1716, 3739.

Sec. 3985. Married women, above the age of twenty-one years, shall have the right, with the consent of their husbands, by act favor of third passed before a notary public, to renounce in favor of third persons, their matrimonial, dotal, paraphernal and other rights; Provided, That the notary public, before receiving the signature of any married woman, shall detail in the act, and explain verbally to said married woman, out of the presence of her husband, the nature of her rights and of the contract she agrees to.

Provided.

ried women to

in certain cases.

C. C. 129; D. Sec. 1717, 2518.

Sec. 3986. It shall be lawful for any married woman, having a Power of mar- mortgage or privilege on the property of her husband, to appoint appoint agents one or more agents, with power in her behalf during her temporary or permanent absence from the State, to intervene in any contract of mortgage or sale made by the husband, and sign in her behalf such renunciation of said mortgage or privilege as the wife herself might do, if personally present, and the said power may be either general or special, and may be executed in the United States before any judge or justice of the peace, or notary, or commissioners of this State, and in foreign countries, before any consul, vice consul, or consular or commercial agent of the United States. C. C. 130; D. Sec. 1718.

to answer in

in open court

Sec. 3987. No court shall make an order requiring a female to Not required answer interrogatories on facts and articles, in open court, unless terrogatories the party propounding them, or his agent or attorney, shall make without affida- oath to the materiality of the interrogatories, that they are not teriality of her propounded for the purpose or in the hope of having them taken testimony. for confessed, but with the bona fide desire to have them truly answered by the party interrogated.

vit of the ma

Recording of prive

mortgages and privileges in

favor of mar

ried women.

C. P. 347; D. Sec. 548, 3966. Act 1847, p. 145, § 1.

Sec. 3988. In order to preserve the mortgages or privileges accorded by law in favor of married women for the preservation of their dotal, paraphernal or other rights against their husbands, it shall be the duty of every married woman, or any person for her, to cause to be recorded in the mortgage book in the parish or

parishes in which their husbands may own mortgageable property, the evidence of their mortgage or privilege. If it be in the shape of a public act, or act under private signature, act of partition, judgment or other written act, the same must be recorded in the form now required in recording such acts, and if it be not in the shape of a written act, as above indicated, then a written statement made by the wife, or the husband, or any other person having knowledge of the fact of the amount due to the wife for which she may be entitled to a mortgage or privilege against her husband by existing or any subsequent law detailing accurately the facts and circumstances on which such claim may be based, which written statement shall be sworn to by the person making it, and duly recorded as above directed. The wife is hereby specially authorized to perform the above acts independent of her husband, and mortgages or privileges so recorded shall only have effect against third persons from the date of their being recorded in the several parishes in which they may be recorded.

C. C. 3349; D. Sec. 2381, 2886, 3086. Act 1869, p. 114.

A

a minor au

Sec. 3989. The nine hundred and ninety-ninth article shall be a married so amended as to authorize a married woman, who is a minor, to woman who is sue and be sued, even in the case provided for by the said article; provided she acts under the authority and with the consent of her husband, though himself a minor; and, in such case, it shall not be necessary to appoint to her a curator ad litem.

C. P. 999; D. Sec. 587, 2348, 8827. Act 1828, p. 154, § 12.
Sec. 3990. That all laws or parts of laws contrary to or in
conflict with the provisions of this act, and all laws or parts of
laws on the same subject matter, except what may be contained
in the Revised Civil Code and Code of Practice of the present
session, be and the same are hereby repealed, except the thirty-
third section of an act entitled "An Act for the punishment of
crimes and misdemeanors," approved May fourth, eighteen hun-
dred and five, and that in so far as there may be any conflict be-
tween the provisions of this act and any provision of the said
Revised Civil Code and Code of Practice, that said Code shall be
held and taken as the law governing, and that this act take effect
on the first day of April, A. D., one thousand eight hundred and
seventy.

C. C. 23 (23); D. Sec. 412, 513, 592; 22 A. 273; 23 A. 326. Act 1870, No. 50.
Approved March 14, 1870.

thorized to sue certain cases, with the con

and be sued in

sent of her husband.

APPENDIX.

An act to repeal sections 1560 and 1561 of the Revised Statutes of 1870, and to provide the manner of filling any vacancy that may exist in the office of governor and lieutenant-governor, and relative to the suspension or impeachment of the governor and lieutenant-governor and for other purposes.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the senate and house of representatives of the State of Louisiana in general assembly convened, That sections fifteen hundred and sixty and fifteen hundred and sixty-one of the Revised Statutes of 1870 be and the same are hereby repealed.

SEC. 2. Be it further enacted, etc., That in case of vacancy in the office of governor, the lieutenant-governor shall be governor; in case of vacancy in the office of lieutenant-governor, the senate shall elect a president who shall be lieutenant-governor; if the offices of governor, lieutenant-governor and president of the senate shall become vacant by death or otherwise, the senate shall elect a president, who shall be governor, and when he assumes the position of gov ernor the senate shall, at their first meeting, elect a president, who shall be lieutenant-governor. SEC. 3. Be it further enacted, etc., That in case the offices of governor and lieutenant-governor shall become vacant while the general assembly is not in session, the president pro tem, of the senate shall act as governor.

SEC. 4. Be it further enacted, etc., That in case of the impeachment of the governor or lieutenant-governor, such impeachment shall not work a suspension until articles of impeachment preferred by the house of representatives to the senate shall have been received and entered upon the journal of the senate.

SEC. 5. Be it further enacted, etc., That all laws or parts of laws conflicting with this act be and the same are hereby repealed, and this act take effect from and after its passage.

MICHAEL HAHN, speaker of the house of representatives.
C. C. ANTOINE, lieutenant-governor and president of the senate.

(Signed)
(Signed)

Approved April 13, 1875.