§ 9-7-15.Exceptions to matters outside record; certification by auditor or return with objections; application for mandamus; notice and hearing; effect of mandamus absolute

Some exceptions rest on matters not appearing on the face of the record, in the transcript of evidence, or in the report itself — facts about what happened that the written record does not capture on its own. This section requires the auditor to certify those exceptions as true within 40 days after the report is filed. If the auditor thinks an exception is untrue or incomplete, the auditor must return it within ten days with written objections; a party who fixes those objections within ten days can then get the exception certified, with the auditor noting the cause of the delay.

Subsection (b) supplies a backstop for a stalled certification. If, through no fault of the party or the party’s attorney, the exceptions still are not certified, the party can apply to the superior court judge within 30 days of tendering the exceptions and petition for a mandamus nisi directed at the auditor.

Subsection (c) walks through that mandamus procedure: the petition must substantially copy the exceptions and be verified or otherwise proven true, the auditor must be served within ten days of the judge signing the writ, and the hearing must be returnable within 30 days. The opposing party gets notice and can resist the mandamus absolute, any disputed facts go to a jury on a traverse, and a mandamus made absolute amends the auditor’s report to that extent.