§ 9-7-12.Report prima facie true

This section sets the default weight an auditor’s report carries. Once filed, the report is prima facie the truth — presumed accurate unless and until someone successfully challenges it. That default favors the auditor’s findings rather than treating them as one side’s argument to be proven.

The presumption is not absolute. The section preserves “either party” — winner and loser alike — the liberty to except to the report, opening the door to the review process the rest of this chapter builds out: recommitment, exceptions of law and fact, and ultimately a court’s judgment.

Placing the report on solid footing this way also shapes what comes next. Because the report starts out presumed true, the party who disagrees with it carries the burden of proving it wrong once exceptions are filed and tried, a principle spelled out explicitly in 9-7-17.