If any person shall neglect or refuse to deliver books, papers, or other office property after demand has been made, the successor shall make complaint to the judge of the probate court of the county or to the judge of the superior court of the circuit in which the person refusing resides or, if neither can be had, to the judge of the superior court of an adjoining circuit; and if such officer is satisfied from the oath of complainant or otherwise that books, papers, or other office property are being withheld, he shall grant an order requiring the person so refusing to show cause, on a day and at a place named in such order, why he should not be compelled to deliver over such property.
(Ga. L. 1853-54, p. 27, § 1; Code 1863, § 168; Code 1868, § 163; Code 1873, § 174; Code 1882, § 174; Civil Code 1895, § 271; Civil Code 1910, § 306; Code 1933, § 89-604.)