19-25-47 - Liability of sheriff for false return on any process. - Mississippi Statutes

§ 19-25-47. Liability of sheriff for false return on any process.
 

If a sheriff or other officer properly authorized to act for him, make a false return on any process whatever, he shall, for every such offense, be liable to pay the sum of five hundred dollars to the plaintiff named in the process, such sum being recoverable against the officer and his sureties, or the officer alone, by motion before the court to which the process is returnable, after five days' notice of such motion to the officer and his sureties. If the returns alleged to be false do not appear on the face of the record to be so, the court shall, at the request of either party, impanel a jury to ascertain whether the return be false or not, on an issue joined under the direction of the court. If the jury find that the return is false, judgment shall be entered for the said sum against the officer and his sureties, with costs. 
 

Sources: Codes, Hutchinson's 1848, ch. 28, art 7 (4); 1857, ch. 6, art 120; 1871, § 226; 1880, § 334; 1892, § 4121; 1906, § 4673; Hemingway's 1917, § 3090; 1930, § 3320; 1942, § 4245.