§ 9-13-101.Additional oath of jurors; damages and costs when claim made for delay

The bond required under Code Section 9-13-91 only matters if someone is charged with deciding whether to collect on it. This section is that mechanism: it puts jurors trying a claim case under a specific, additional duty beyond the oath jurors normally take.

Every juror on the trial of a claim, whether the property is real or personal, must be sworn to give damages that seem reasonable and just if the evidence shows the claim was made for delay only. The statute sets a floor on that award, not a ceiling: not less than 10 percent of the amount due on the execution, when the disputed property’s value exceeds that amount, or 10 percent of the property’s value instead, when the property is worth less than the execution. That same value-versus-execution comparison reappears in Code Section 9-13-105’s general rule for how claim damages get assessed.

Whether to make that delay finding at all is left to the jury — the statute says the jury “may” return a verdict along these lines, not that it must. But once the jury does find delay, the consequence reaches further than the claimant alone: judgment may be entered against the claimant and the claimant’s security together, for both the damages assessed and the costs of the trial.