Every person who has any money due him or her from any town or city, or any claim or demand against any town or city, for any matter, cause, or thing whatsoever, shall take the following method to obtain what is due: The person shall present to the town council of the town, or to the city council of the city, a particular account of that person’s claim, debt, damages, or demand, and how incurred or contracted; which being done, in case just and due satisfaction is not made to him or her by the town or city treasurer of the town or city within forty (40) days after the presentment of the claim, debt, damages, or demand, the person may commence his or her action against the treasurer for the recovery of the complaint.
R.I. Gen. Laws § 45-15-5
Presentment to council of claim or demand against town
Applied in 8 court decisions — leading case Gibson v. City of Cranston (1994)
Most recently applied in 256 F. Supp. 3d 139 - Perez v. Town of North Providence (June 2017)
G.L. 1896, ch. 36, § 12; G.L. 1909, ch. 46, § 12; G.L. 1923, ch. 47, § 13; G.L. 1938, ch. 352, § 3; G.L. 1956, § 45-15-5.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Rhode Island General Assembly. Reproduced from public-domain Rhode Island statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.