606. Any debtor arrested under a writ of capias ad respondendum, may make a judicial abandonment of his or her property for the benefit of his or her creditors.
607. This abandonment is effected by filing in the Registrar's office a statement, sworn to by the defendant, and making known:
1. all the movable and immovable property of which he or she is possessed;
2. the names and addresses of all and each of his or her creditors, the amount of their claims, and the nature of each claim, whether privileged, hypothecary, or otherwise.
Such statement must be accompanied with a declaration by the debtor that he or she consents to abandon all his or her property to his or her creditors.
608. The debtor must give the plaintiff notice of the filing of the statement and of his or her declaration of abandonment.
609. A debtor who has been admitted to bail is bound to file this statement and declaration within 30 days from the date of the judgment rendered in the suit in which he or she was arrested.
Any person condemned to pay a sum exceeding $48 exclusive of interest from service of process and costs, is likewise, after such movable and immovable property as he or she appears possessed of have been discussed, bound, upon being required to do so, to file a similar statement.
610. If the debtor is in gaol he or she may file such statement and declaration at any time.
611. If the defendant on bail neglect or refuse to file a statement within one month after his or her discharge on bail, the Court or Judge may order that he or she be imprisoned until he or she furnishes the statement, but such imprisonment shall not exceed 2 years.
612. Upon the filing of the statement and declaration of abandonment by the debtor, his or her property vests in the Administrator General as curator. The Court or Judge on the application of any creditor may appoint another curator in the place of the Administrator General. Notice of such application, and of the day and hour at which it is to be made, must be given by advertisement in 2 numbers of the Gazette.
The Administrator General and curator so appointed by the Court or Judge have respectively the same rights and duties as the Administrator General and trustee have with regard to bankrupts, as set forth in the Title on Bankruptcy in the Commercial Code, and dispose of the property abandoned, and distribute the proceeds, as set forth in the said Title with regard to the property of bankrupts.
613. The curator appointed by the Court or Judge must give security to the satisfaction of the Judge. He or she gives notice of his or her appointment by 2 advertisements in the Gazette.
614. The curator has likewise a right to receive, collect, and recover any other property belonging to the debtor, and which the latter has failed to include in his or her statement.
615. Within one month after the filing of the statement, when the debtor is in prison, and within 6 months after the filing of such statement when the debtor is at large under bail, it may be contested by any creditor, by reason:
1. of the omission to mention property of the value of $48;
2. of any secreting by the debtor within the 30 days immediately preceding the institution of the suit, or since, of any portion of his or her property, with intent to defraud his or her creditors;
3. of fraudulent misrepresentations in the statement, in respect of the number of his or her creditors or the nature or amount of their claims.
616. The contesting party is bound to proceed as in an ordinary case.
617. The debtor is bound to attend before the Court or before the Judge, under the penalty hereinafter imposed, in order to answer all questions which may be put to him or her concerning such statement.
618. If the contesting party establishes any one of the offences mentioned in article 615, or if the defendant refuses to attend or to answer, as required under the preceding article, the Court or Judge may condemn him or her to be imprisoned for a term not exceeding 2 years.
If the debtor so ordered to be imprisoned, does not surrender himself or herself, or is not surrendered for that purpose according to such order, then the sureties are liable to pay the plaintiff the debt, together with interest and all costs.
619. If the allegations of the contestation are not proved, within the delays above mentioned, the Court or Judge may order the discharge of the debtor; and the latter cannot again be imprisoned for any debt due the plaintiff, or any other creditor, by reason of any cause of action anterior to his or her statement and declaration or abandonment; and in case of such imprisonment he or she may obtain his or her discharge either from the Court or Judge, upon petition and sufficient proof.
620. The abandonment of his or her property deprives the debtor of the enjoyment of such property.
621. The abandonment of his or her property discharges the debtor from his or her debts to the extent only of the amount which his or her creditors have been paid out of the proceeds of the sale of such property.
622. Special provisions concerning insolvent traders are contained in the Commercial Code.