PROVIDENCE — Action was postponed yesterday in a Barrington man’s attempt to halt the 30-day prison sentence that he faces for failing to make court-ordered payments to a Warwick man whose skull he cracked in a 1988 brawl.

Paul D. Grieder’s lawyer, J. Ronald Fishbein, had been scheduled to appear before the state Supreme Court duty justice yesterday to ask that Grieder’s sentence be placed on hold pending an appeal. But Fishbein said he was feeling “under the weather” yesterday, so lawyers for both sides agreed to instead appear at 9 this morning in the chambers of Justice Francis X. Flaherty.

Fishbein intends to ask Flaherty for a stay of an Oct. 4 order by Superior Court Judge Daniel A. Procaccini, who told Grieder to either pay $3,000 to Michael P. Trainor and $1,000 to Trainor’s lawyer within 60 days or go to prison for 30 days. Grieder has not made those payments.

If Grieder does not pay and Flaherty does not halt the sentence, Grieder will have to appear before Procaccini at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow and go to the Adult Correctional Institutions.

Since a 1992 civil judgment, Grieder, 42, of Linden Road, has paid about $21,000 toward the $1.5 million he owes Trainor for an assault outside a Providence nightclub. With interest, the debt now totals nearly $5 million.

On Monday, Fishbein asked Procaccini to grant an “emergency motion for stay of order of incarceration,” arguing that Grieder was never served with required legal papers in 1996 and that such a failure invalidates a court order requiring Grieder to pay Trainor $400 per month.

Procaccini refused to grant the motion, questioning why a “technical” issue was being raised “at the eleventh hour” and saying, “It is time for the defendant to pay or go to jail. I am not going to validate his disrespect for the court.”

But Procaccini said he respected Grieder’s right to appeal and gave him 24 hours to seek a stay from the Supreme Court. Now that deadline has been extended by one day.

Fishbein filed a motion for a stay with the Supreme Court yesterday, and Trainor’s lawyer, Robert M. Brady, filed an objection.

efitzpat@projo.com