In re Kneeream's Estate

• Decision Date: 03 May 1938
• Docket Number: 8721.
• Citation: 196 S.E. 362,120 W.Va. 147
• Parties: In re KNEEREAM'S ESTATE.
• Court: West Virginia Supreme Court

196 S.E. 362

120 W.Va. 147

In re KNEEREAM'S ESTATE.

No. 8721.

Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.

May 3, 1938

Submitted April 26, 1938.

Rehearing Denied June 21, 1938.

Syllabus by the Court.

1. Under Code, 55-2-8, part payment of a debt does not affect the running of the statute of limitations thereon.

2. Under Code, 55-2-10, the provision of a will charging real estate with the payment of testator's debts does not affect the statute of limitations, unless specific debts are plainly indicated.

Error to Circuit Court, Jackson County.

Proceeding in the matter of the estate of Sallie D. Kneeream, deceased wherein H. H. Brown, claimant, filed his claim for balance due on a note executed by Sallie D. Kneeream, deceased. To review a judgment sustaining the executors' plea of limitations, the claimant brings error.

Judgment affirmed.

Lee Blessing & Steed, of Charleston, for plaintiff in error.

Russell Hiteshew, Adams & Randolph, of Parkersburg, for defendant in error.

HATCHER Judge.

July 29, 1922, Sallie D. Kneeream, now deceased, executed a negotiable note for $4,000, payable to claimant, H. H. Brown one year from date. Two payments only were made on the note; $104 on May 30, 1930, and $250 on May 30, 1933. Mrs. Kneeream died in January, 1934, testate. Her will directed payment of her debts, but made no specific reference to the note. Claimant filed his claim for balance due on the note in 1935. The executors of decedent pleaded the statute of limitations. The plea was sustained by the circuit court.

Claimant contends that the effect of the statute of limitations was nullified by (1) the partial payments on the note, and (2) the testamentary direction to pay debts.

1. The ancient common law of England did not limit the time for bringing an action on a contract. Williams v. Jones, 13 East 449. The first limitation thereon was 21 James, c. 16, § 3, enacted in the year 1623, which provided that the action must be brought within six years after the right accrued, "and not after." The statute itself contained no exceptions; but in the course of years it was relaxed by judicial construction to exclude "first an acknowledgment by words only; secondly, a promise by words only; and thirdly, part payment of principal or interest." Lord Campbell in Cleave v. Jones, 6 Ex. 573, 578, 579. The statute of James was re-enacted in most, if not all, of the states with little, if any, variation, except as to the period of limitation. (Five years in Virginia. Rev. Code 1819, c. 128, § 4.)

In 1828, Parliament took notice of the practice of excluding certain cases from the operation of the statute of James, and enacted that in actions on contracts "no acknowledgment or promise by words, only, shall be deemed sufficient evidence of a new or continuing contract * * * unless such acknowledgment or promise shall be made or contained by or in some writing to be signed by the party chargeable thereby; * * * provided always that nothing herein contained shall alter or take away or lessen the effect of any payment of any principal or interest made by any person whatsoever." 9 George IV, chapter 14, preamble and section 1. This statute was held plainly to leave "the effect and proof of payment exactly as it was before the statute." Cleave v. Jones, supra. The substance, if not the letter, of this statute, together with its construction by the English courts, was adopted in all of the states except Virginia, and a few others, which omitted entirely the saving provision in favor of part payment. Acts Virginia 1838, c. 95, § 1. (The statement of Woods, Limitations, section 96, that this provision "has been expressly preserved * * * in all the statutes of a similar character in the States of this country except Nevada," is erroneous.) The revisors of the Virginia Code of 1849 expressed their opinion that the provision had been wisely omitted in the act of 1838, and continued its omission. 1 Robinson's Practice (1854), 578. The West Virginia statute, Code, 55-2-8, is taken practically verbatim from the Virginia Code 1860, c. 149, § 7. In a case where the debtor or his agent, by writing, has promised payment, section 8 annuls the prior effect of 55-2-6, the statute of limitations. To prevent possible misconstruction, section 8 further provides: "* * * but no promise, except by writing as aforesaid, shall take any case out of the operation of the said sixth section, or deprive any party of the benefit thereof."

Claimant relies especially on Woods, Limitations, § 105, which makes the broad assertion that partial payment upon an obligation before the statute has run "suspends the operation of the statute from that date and starts it afresh." This generalization applies under the many statutes which retained the proviso of George IV, preserving the common-law effect of such a payment, but not under the few statutes, like that of the Virginias, which omitted the proviso. This distinction is remarked by Williston, Contracts, Rev.Ed., § 174. Part payment of a debt, alone, can at most only imply a promise to pay the remainder. Bell v. Crawford, 8 Grat., Va., 110, 130. Since that implication is not in writing and signed by the debtor, or his agent, such a payment does not affect the statute of limitations under a countervailing statute phrased like ours. Pena v. Vance, 21 Cal. 142, 149; Parsons v. Carey, 28 Iowa 431; Wilcox v. Williams, 5 Nev. 206; Holland v. Chaffin, 22 Ga. 343; Perry v. Ellis, 62 Miss. 711; Bell v. Crawford, supra; Gover v. Chamberlain, 83 Va. 286, 5 S.E. 174; Becker & Co. v. Norfolk & W. Ry. Co., 125 Va. 558, 560, 100 S.E. 478. The last...