Court : US Supreme Court
..... such a construction, as that an assigned bond should have a currency, from hand to hand, and that the possessor should recover, independent of any contracts or dealings between the obligor and obligee; that the clause in the act of assembly, 'should commence and prosecute his, her, or their actions at law, for the recovery of the money mentioned in such bonds or notes, or so much thereof, as shall appear to be due at the ..... same was or were made payable,' only referred to the mode of recovery, where the assignee brought his action in his own name, as he might under this act; that any other construction would defeat the intention of the act, which was to encourage trade and commerce; but if the assignee was to take the bond subject to the dealing between the obligor and obligee, there was an ..... legislature would not have varied the expression in those parts of the statutes, expressly refering to inland bills of exchange, and making promissory notes negotiable as bills of exchange; the act of assembly, on the other hand, expressing such a recovery by assignee as the assignor could have had, and confining the recovery to such money as was due at the time of the assignment. ..... for supposing the intention of the law was only to give a chancery jurisdiction; because there was a chancery in this province until the year 1718; since this act passed, and as soon as ever the chancery powers ceased to be exercised, the courts of law took them, and have exercised them to the great satisfaction of .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... which it is perfected, and cannot be affected by any arguments drawn from the laws of the country where a subsequent action is brought, certainly a judicial decision (which, like an act once in force, but afterwards repealed, vests a right in the party, though its immediate operation is impeded) cannot be otherwise expounded and enforced than by the laws of the country where it is pronounced: and proceedings under the ..... resided in it one year free from arrest; that a man indebted to any amount was entitled to the benefit of it; that a person not in execution was not excluded; that the act requires notice to be inserted in the public papers of new york if the debtor lives in east jersey, or in those of pennsylvania if he lives in west jersey; and that every debtor, who ..... complied with the terms of the act, became thereby expressly discharged from all debts due at the time of the assignment of his effects for the use of his creditors, or contracted for before that time and payable after, ..... might have been the effect of an order or judgment of the court of new jersey, if it had actually discharged the defendant from the plaintiff's demand, the present order, as well as the act of assembly on which it is founded, is local in its terms, and goes no further than to discharge him from his imprisonment in the gaol of essex county in the state of new jersey .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... the court, if the lessee had covenanted for himself and his assigns, to deliver up the tenements in good order and repair, notwithstanding they should be destroyed by act of god or of an enemy, then this action would certainly lie, because of the special express words; but when there are no such words, but only generally ..... the tenements should be kept in good repair, and in such order delivered up at the end of the term, without any act or default in him, or act of any person, who could be prosecuted as a wrongdoer, to prevent it; and notwithstanding common and ordinary accidents might happen? ..... be destroyed by lightning, floods, tempests, or enemies, without any concurrence of the lessee, or possibility of his preventing the same, this is no waste in the lessee: for, it is not done by the lessee's negligence, or any wilful act of his; and he cannot be charged with using it improperly, and it would thus have perished, even in the reversioner's possession. ..... the defendant is excused from his covenant to deliver up the premisses in good repair on the 1st of march 1778; 1st, because a covenant to do this, against an act of god or an enemy, ought to be special and express, and so clear that no other meaning could be put upon it. ..... a court of chancery judges of every case according to the peculiar circumstances attending it, and is bound not to suffer an act of injustice to prevail; and in doing this, it conforms to the spirit and intent of the general rule of every positive law, which .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... in their decisions, by the rule that is there prescribed; for courts of chancery, 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 which we are bound to yield attention and obedience; for, the maxim is certainly ..... if, indeed, this had been a bond for the payment of continental money, there is no doubt that, by the act of assembly just cited, only so much specie, as the l500 was really worth, could be recovered by the plaintiff; but it is a bond for the payment of hard money, in consideration of a loan of continental money, ..... payment of hard money, and as the law only fixes a scale for the payment of contracts in continental money, where no tender has been made, the jury cannot set aside the solemn act of the parties, but ought to find a verdict generally for the plaintiff. ..... nor can a question of usury be considered in this action; for, the act of assembly does not make the contract void on that account, as the english statute does, but only inflicts a forfeiture, equivalent to the money or other article lent, which must be ..... let in evidence 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. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... pitt's case in strange, whether he should be discharged on common bail, or be discharged altogether; it being after the dissolution of parliament, the plaintiff had a right, by the act, to commence a suit against him; and, therefore, it seemed, at first, that he should only be discharged on common bail; but as he had commenced his suit by arresting his person, before his time of privilege expired, ..... is applicable to the legislature of pennsylvania, must then be acknowledged, though it certainly is not conferred by any positive law: nor can it be denied to a convention acting under the immediate sanction and authority of the people, upon a question of the highest importance to the general interests of the community. ..... from legal process; that, even if he was privileged on account of his official character, he had lost that advantage, by his partnership with the other defendant, who was not entitled to it; and that the act of assembly makes no difference between persons serving their country abroad, and any other non-residents. ..... the act of 1684, has been long repealed; and the distinction attempted between a capias and summons does not apply; for every writ irregularly issued must be set aside; and, therefore, if a man is illegally arrested, common bail ought not ..... by an act passed in the year 1684, (though since repealed) a summons might have been served in any county, at any time, with an exception, allowing, in the case of a member of assembly, a protection for the space of 14 days .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... testament for the disposition of personal property; and, being 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 two witnesses to the legal probate of a last will and ..... could make it necessary in those instances, must, 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, but as it affects the peace and welfare of posterity. ..... 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 ..... then, laws which relate to the same subject, must be taken together, there can be no doubt from a connected view of the laws of england, the acts of assembly cited from the appendix of the late province laws, the different parts of the very act in question, and the practice of our courts, that, whether qualified by affirmation, or by oath, two witnesses are necessary to establish a last will and .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... by the old law, a person might set free his negro at any age, on giving security at the county court, that he should not become chargeable to the public, but that law being repealed by the act now under consideration, it became necessary to restrain the exercise of that right, and to put it on some equitable footing; which this clause has done; by ordering, that the owner of a ..... of their number, they would have made provision for those of tender age, who might happen to be abandoned by their owners, as they have done with respect to those born after the act and abandoned; they would have made like provision for their redress in case of severe treatment, and, in proportion to their term of servitude before they attained the age of twenty eight years, ..... the legislature was, that all negro or mulatto slaves, or servants for life, or until they should arrive to thirty one years of age, within the state at the time of passing the act, who were then under the age of twenty eight years, might be detained as servants until they arrived to that age, though they should not be registered; but if the master detained them ..... section comes in by way of proviso to the fifth, and declares, that any persons who had the ownership or right to the service of any negro, or mulatto, at the time of passing the act, his, or her, heirs, executors administrators, and assigns, shall be liable to the overseers of the poor of the city or place to which such negro or mulatto shall become chargeable, for the .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... proves, that, on principle, this money ought to be paid in such coin as is current at the time it is payable; and the act of assembly ought to be construed in consistency with this principle. ..... the auditors appointed under the act have this power; and shall not the court have it also? ..... the value of money in contracts between 1776, and 1781, is ascertained by the act of assembly (1 vol. ..... the principle of lee and biddis was, that the court were bound by the words 'current lawful money' and the positive words of the act of assembly. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... contended, that, in no case, could the marshall be authorised to return more than 80 jurors; that the power of extending the pannel to that number does not vest in the circuit court, fitting in its ordinary character, as the act only vests it in the courts of oyer & terminer, general-goal- delivery, and nisi prius; but that, in the present instance, even that number, and without the order of the court, had been far exceeded ..... in consequence of this decision, the trials were suspended, in order to give the attorney of the district the three days required by the act of congress, for delivering to the prisoners, amended copies of the caption and indictment, and of the lists of jurors and witnesses. ..... they observed, that the leading question on this point, called for a decision, whether, when a federal court was referred by an act of congress to state regulations for its government, the state law, in its strict words, or in the practice under it, should furnish the rule? ..... [341-continued] patterson, justice: the objections that have been suggested on this occasion, are principally founded on the 29th section of the judicial act of congress, which refers the federal courts to the state laws, for certain regulations respecting juries. ..... the act of pennsylvania, however, had obviously an oeconomical object in view, when it limited the number of jurors to sixty, as a compensation was originally allowed for their attendance, the gh it has since been repealed; 2 vol. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... " "and the legislature of the state of virginia did, in its session begun and held in the town of richmond on monday, 6 may, 1782, pass an act entitled 'an act to repeal so much of a former act as suspends the issuing of executions upon certain judgments until december, 1783,' whereby it is enacted that no demand whatsoever originally due to a subject of great britain shall be recoverable in any court in this commonwealth ..... according to the practice in great britain, in conformity to the law of nations, and upon the principles of a mixed government, in case any impediments had then existed by acts of parliament in great britain to the recovery of american debts, such impediments could only have been removed by a repeal, we may presume the british negotiator had reason to conclude that the lawful impediments in this country could only be removed in the same manner, and if so may ..... fourth article embraces all creditors, extends to all preexisting debts, removes all lawful impediments, repeals the legislative act of virginia, which has been pleaded in bar, and with regard to the creditor ..... the stipulation in favor of creditors, so as to enable them to bring suits and recover the full value of their debts, could not at that time be carried into effect in any other manner than by a repeal of the statutes of the different states constituting the impediments to their recovery, and the passing of such other acts as might be necessary to give the recovery entire efficacy in execution of the treaty .....
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