Lewis v. Harwood

• Decision Date: 01 February 1810
• Citation: 6 Cranch 82,10 U.S. 82,3 L.Ed. 160
• Parties: LEWIS v. HARWOOD
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

10 U.S. 82

6 Cranch 82

3 L.Ed. 160

LEWIS v. HARWOOD.

February Term, 1810

ERROR to the circuit court for the district of Virginia, in an action of debt upon a bond dated February 3, 1784, the condition of which was, that if the obligor should pay to William Whetcroft, his attorney, heirs, executors, administrators or assigns, the sum of 3,000l. current money of Virginia, on or before the 1st of January, 1785, then the obligation to be void.

Provided that if the obligor, on application by the obligee at the town of Fredericksburg, on or after the 1st of January, 1785, should pay to the obligee 3,000l. in officers' certificates of a certain description, or should pay the interest of 6 per cent. from the date of the bond, on such certificates, if not paid, and should annually and punctually pay the said 6 per

cent. when applied to as before mentioned, in doing of which the condition of the bond was to be dischargeable by payment of the 3,000l. officers' certificates, otherwise the bond was to have its full force and effect.

Upon the pleas of payment, and conditions performed, the verdict and judgment below were for the plaintiff.

The defendant brought his writ of error.

Terrell and Swann, for the plaintiff in error, contended.

That the bond was not assignable under the act of assembly of Virginia, and therefore the plaintiff below, who was the assignee, could not recover in his own name.

The act of 1748 applies only to a bond given for a debt. And by a subsequent act, it is explained to mean a money debt.

The subsequent act makes tobacco bonds assignable. In the case of Henderson v. Hepburn, 2 Call, 232. 238. it is decided that an assignee cannot maintain an action of debt in his own name upon a bond with a collateral condition. Craig v. Craig, 1 Call 483.

The condition of the bond is either to pay 3,000l. by a certain day, or to pay 3,000l. in certificates, or to pay interest on the certificates.

A bond is not assignable unless it be for a debt so certain, as not to require the aid of a jury to assess the damages, or to ascertain the sum due.

February 24.

LIVINGSTON, J. delivered the opinion of the court as follows:

On the 3d day of February, 1784, the plaintiff executed his bond to William Whetcroft, in the penal sum of 6,000l. to which there is a condition in the following words: 'The condition of the above obligation is such, that if the said John Lewis shall well and truly pay to the said William Whetcroft the full sum of three thousand pounds, current money of Virginia, on or before...