Court : US Supreme Court
Decided on : Jan-01-1788
..... a fortiori, operate in the case before us: for, it could not be designed, that greater solemnity should be observed in a verbal testament, or in repealing, than in making, a last will and testament; an act of the most serious and important nature, not only as it affects the testator, ..... a concession which, it is not probable, a legislature, composed of quakers, would have been easily induced to make. on the contrary, the design of this clause seems to have been, to prevent any doubt of a man's right to deliver his testimony, conformably to the dictates of his ..... with the rules of grammar and construction, can the argument be admitted, which is founded upon the religious scruples of the assembly that passed the act; for, if the legislature fought to avoid the mention of an oath, the sentence must have been differently arranged, and would probably have run ..... thus incontrlvertibly established in that country, from which we have, in general, copied the principles, and practice of jurisprudence, it will appear by various acts of the legislature, antecedent to the passing of the law in question, and even by the original stipulations in england, that the necessity of ..... but as it affects the peace and welfare of posterity. in short, from the uniform tenor of the acts of assembly, from the practice of the courts, and from the other analogous sections .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
Decided on : Jan-01-1788
..... allowance for debts was the difficulty of ascertaining them, and not the presumption of their being recoverable after the peace. nor does the act of connecticut, repealing all laws against the treaty, affect the law in question, which is directed to an object of mere municipal regulation. the state ..... the description in the fourth article cannot be extended to him; and though page 1 u.s. 393, 400 the sixth article certainly designates persons acting as he has done, yet it gives no farther advantage than to protect his person from molestation, and to preclude any future confiscations of ..... should thereafter do so, should be confiscated; and that, with respect to those persons who had been inhabitants of the state (the last section of the act providing for the case of persons who had never been inhabitants) the county court upon application was empowered and directed to give judgment, ..... , indeed, and the law of connecticut (passed the 2nd thursday of may, 1787) repealing all acts repugnant to the treaty, the administrators could not now interfere to prevent the plaintiff's recovery; for, the act by virtue of which they were appointed, is certainly of that description; so that by ..... therefore, thought it would have been incompatible with it to have sustained any legal proceedings afterwards in the supreme court against the defendant, an act of the legislature became necessary to divest the right, which the state had acquired by the previous confiscation. the conduct of the british agents .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
Decided on : Jan-01-1788
..... the cases, the jury must decide for themselves. i will only add on this objection, that the legislature probably introduced the proviso in the third section (with, i presume, a view particularly to foreigners) in order to evince, that it was not intended to abrogate all former contracts and obligations ..... , directs commissioners to be appointed, who having received the necessary proofs of the party's being a trader, and of the commission of an act of bankruptcy, are amply empowered to investigate the bankrupt's conduct, and to compel a disclosure and surrender of all his property; and, when ..... in paying those obligations, from which they were thus, by law, exonerated. it has often happened, however, that, on the other hand, the bankrupt acts have been perverted to the iniquitous purposes of fraud and embezlement; and, therefore, it is requisite, that, on every occasion, the strictest scrutiny should take ..... by the commissioners are certainly matters of law, arising from the facts; as, what avocation constitutes a trader, or what conduct amounts to an act of bankruptcy: would it not then be a strained and unreasonable thing to suppose, that the legislature has established a jurisdiction of this sort, ..... , it has merely transferred the burthen from him to the creditor, with whom it now lies to prove, according to the terms of our act of assembly, that the certificate was unfairly obtained. that the certificate was unfairly obtained, is, indeed, an expression attended with some ambiguity; but .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
Decided on : Jan-01-1788
..... in so much gold or silver money as shall be equal in value to the debt or duty, according to the contract.' but the meaning of this section (and in the interpretation of laws, recourse must always be had to the meaning of the legislature) is only this; that, where a contract had been ..... one has been discovered, which is strictly analogous to the question under our immediate consideration. there is, indeed, an act of assembly, passed on the 21st of june, 1781, 2 state laws 494. the 5th section of which seems to relate, in some degree, to the present controversy, when it enacts, that 'all debts etc ..... , and the general principles of equity, can never be allowed to contradict or defeat the express provisions of a statute: and even where there is no act of assembly to direct us, the common law, recognized and ascertained by the adjudications of the courts upon the same subject, often furnishes a guide to ..... shew what was meant by current lawful money, expressed in the contract, because it would tend to contradict, not only the contract, but likewise the act of assembly establishing the scale. here the contract is expresly for the payment of hard money, and as the law only fixes a scale for the ..... of the five years, in which the bond was made payable, if the continental money had appreciated, the plaintiff would have been a considerable loser. besides, an act of assembly declared, that a page 1 u.s. 257, 258 continental dollar should be equal to gold and silver; and the money, being a legal .....
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