§59-1-17. By whom witnesses paid; on what certificate; clerk's certificate as to claims; dispute as to claims.

The sum to which a witness is entitled shall be paid out of the treasury in any case of attendance before either house or a committee of the Legislature, and in any other case in which the attendance is for the state except where it is otherwise specially provided. In all other cases it shall be paid by the party for whom the summons issued. The payment shall be on the certificate of the person required by the preceding section to make the entry. The certificate shall express by letters, and not by figures, the separate amounts to which the witness is entitled for his attendance, traveling tolls and ferriages which he may have to pay, and the aggregate thereof. No clerk or other person authorized to make such entry or give such certificate shall become interested by purchase in any claim payable out of the public treasury, which by law he is authorized to certify. And it shall be the duty of such clerk, as soon as possible after the adjournment of any court, to make out a list of all entries made on behalf of witnesses attending for the state, whose fees are payable out of the treasury, and certify such list to the Auditor. Any dispute (before or after issuing the certificate) between the witness and the party against whom his claim is made, as to its justice or amount, may, when the case is in a court or before a justice, be determined by such court or justice.