§ 9-6-27.Time of hearing; notice; how and when issues of fact determined

Once a court grants what this section calls a “mandamus nisi” — an order requiring the official to act or show cause why he should not — the case does not sit idle. The judge has to set it for trial no sooner than ten days and no later than thirty days out, and the defendant has to be served at least five days before that hearing date.

What happens at the hearing depends on whether the facts are in dispute. If the application and answer do not raise any issue of fact, the judge decides the case alone, without a jury. If a factual dispute does exist, the parties can agree to let the judge resolve it anyway — but absent that agreement, the case goes to a jury, set for trial on the first day of the next term of the superior court, the same way other jury cases are handled.

The section adds one practical wrinkle: if the court has a jury session scheduled before that next term arrives, the mandamus case does not have to wait — it stands for trial at the present term instead. That keeps a mandamus case with a genuine factual fight from being delayed longer than necessary.