John Bacon, Alexander Symington, and Thomas Robins, Complainants and Appellants v. Volney Howard
| Decision Date | 01 December 1857 |
| Citation | 61 U.S. 22,20 How. 22,15 L.Ed. 811 |
| Parties | JOHN BACON, ALEXANDER SYMINGTON, AND THOMAS ROBINS, COMPLAINANTS AND APPELLANTS, v. VOLNEY E. HOWARD |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
THIS case was an appeal from the District Court of the United States for the district of Texas.
The case is stated in the opinion of the court.
It was argued by Mr. Hale for the appellants, and Mr. Hughes for the appellee.
The complainants are assignees of a judgment obtained by the Planters' Bank against the defendant, in the State of Mississipi. The charter of the bank has been forfeited. The complainants, as equitable owners of the judgment, demand payment by their bill. The judgment claimed by them is dated on the 19th of October, 1840, and their bill was filed on the 22d of October, 1850. Anticipating the defence of the statutes of limitation of Texas, the bill avers 'that, at the time of passage of the act of Congress of the Republic of Texas, approved June 28th, 1845, entitled 'An act to authenticate foreign judgments, and to limit suits thereon,' the defendants resided in San Antonio, Texas, and the complainants in Philadelphia—more than 2,000 miles apart; and that complainants could not, according to the regular course of the mails, and with any reasonable diligence, have learned the passage of said act, and caused suit to be instituted upon the judgment within sixty days after its passage.' The respondent has demurred to the bill, and assigns as a cause of demurrer, among other reasons, 'That the complainants, by their own showing, are barred by the first section of an act entitled 'An act of limitations,' approved February 4, 1841, and also by the fourth section of the act referred to in the bill.'
If this allegation be found correct, it will be unnecessary to notice the others.
On the 10th of January, 1841, the Legislature of the Republic of Texas enacted, 'That no suit, proceeding, judgment, or decree, shall be brought, prosecuted, or sustained, in any court or judicial magistracy of this Republic, on any judgment or decree of any court or tribunal of any foreign nation, State, or Territory,' &c. 'But this provision is in no degree to affect the validity or obligation of contracts, engagements, or pecuni- aryliabilities, originating abroad, or the original evidence, testimony, or proof, to establish the same,' &c.
On the 5th of February, 1841, 'An act of limitations' was passed, the first section of which, after prescribing shorter limitations for other causes of action, declares that 'all actions of debt grounded on any contract in writing shall be commenced and sued within four years next after the cause of such action, and not after.'
Without criticising the peculiar expressions used in these acts, it is obvious that their policy and object was to bar the prosecution of any claim for money or property at farthest in four years from the time when the right of action first accrued.
Now, the original cause of action, on which the judgment in question was obtained, must have existed or accrued at the latest on the 19th of October, 1840, when judgment was entered thereon in the court of Mississippi. Counting from the date, the action would have been barred on the 19th of October, 1844. But assuming that the time did not commence to run till the 17th of March, 1841, when the act of 5th February, 1841, is said to have taken effect, the action was barred on the 17th of March, 1845.
On the 23d of June, 1845, the Congress of the Republic gave their consent to the annexation of Texas to the United States, and the Convention which formed the Constitution of the State met on the 4th of July of the same year.
It would seem that doubts and apprehensions were entertained that, when Texas became a State of the Union, that section of the Constitution of the United States which prescribed that full...
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