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Actions for malicious prosecution, &c. brought in superior courts may be remitted to civil bill court by judge.
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6. Any person against whom an action for malicious prosecution, illegal arrest, illegal distress, assault, false imprisonment, libel, slander, seduction, or other action of tort may be brought in any superior courts of common law at Dublin may, within eight days from the day upon which the summons and plaint shall have been served upon him, apply to the court in which the action is brought, or to any judge of the said superior courts in chamber, (having previously made and filed in the proper office an affidavit setting forth that the plaintiff has no visible means of paying the costs of the defendant should a verdict not be found for the plaintiff,) for an order that unless the plaintiff shall, within a time to be therein mentioned, give full security for the defendant's costs to the satisfaction of the master of the said court, or satisfy the judge that he has a cause of action fit to be prosecuted in the superior court, all proceedings in the action shall be stayed, or in the event of the plaintiff being unable or unwilling to give such security, or failing to satisfy the judge as aforesaid, that the cause be remitted for trial in the civil bill court of the division of the county in which the defendant usually resides, at the sessions to be named in such order; and on the hearing of such application the judge shall, on proof that sufficient notice thereof has been given to the plaintiff or his attorney, and if he is satisfied of the truth of the statements in such affidavit, make such order accordingly; and where any such cause shall be remitted for trial in manner aforesaid the plaintiff shall lodge the original summons and plaint, which, if filed, shall be taken off the file for that purpose and delivered to the plaintiff, and the order with the clerk of the peace of the county named in the order, and thereupon the said cause shall be deemed to be and shall be within the jurisdiction of the civil bill court named in such order, and the said court shall have all and the same powers and jurisdiction with respect to the said cause as if the same had been originally within the jurisdiction of the said court and had been commenced by process in the said court; and the costs of the parties in respect of the proceedings subsequent to the order of the judge of the superior court shall be allowed according to the scale of costs in use in the civil bill courts, and the costs of the proceedings in the superior court shall be allowed according to the scale in use in such latter court.
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