Slacum v. Pomery

• Decision Date: 01 February 1810
• Citation: 3 L.Ed. 204,10 U.S. 221,6 Cranch 221
• Parties: SLACUM v. POMERY
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

10 U.S. 221

6 Cranch 221

3 L.Ed. 204

SLACUM v. POMERY.

February Term, 1810

ERROR to the circuit court for the district of Columbia, sitting in Alexandria, in an action of debt, (under the law of Virginia,) brought by Pomery against Slacum, as endorsor of a bill of exchange, dated the 6th of August, 1807, drawn in the island of Barbadoes, by Charles Cadogan, a merchant residing there, at 60 days' sight, upon Barton, Irlam & Higginson, at Liverpool, in England, for 138l.. 17s. 9d. sterling, payable to Slacum or order, who endorsed it, at Alexandria, in the district of Columbia, to the plaintiff.

The declaration was 'of a plea that he render unto him one hundred and thirty-eight pounds, seventeen shillings and nine pence sterling money of Great Britain, with interest at the rate of five per centum per annum, from the 23d day of December, eighteen hundred and seven, until paid, together with fifteen per cent. damages on the said one hundred and thirty-eight pounds, seventeen shillings and nine pence, and ten shillings and six pence sterling, of the value of two dollars and thirty-three cents, current money of the United States, costs of protest, which to him he owes,' &c.

It then stated the making and endorsing of the bill, the non-acceptance and non-payment, and the protest for non-payment, 'by reason of which premises, and by force of the statute in that case made and provided, action hath accrued to the plaintiff to demand and have of the defendant the said sum of 138l. 17s. 9d. sterling, and interest at the rate of five per cent. per annum, from the 23d of December, 1807, until paid,

together with fifteen per cent. damages, and ten shillings and six pence sterling, of the value,' &c.

Upon the trial of the cause on the issue of nil debet, the defendant below took a bill of exceptions, stating that evidence was offered of the bill, the endorsement by the defendant to the plaintiff in Alexandria, (both parties being inhabitants of that town,) the protest for non-payment, and that, by the laws of Barbaeoes, the damages, upon protested bills of exchange, were only ten per cent. upon the principal and interest due upon the bill. Whereupon the defendant prayed the court to instruct the jury that the plaintiff was not entitled to recover more than the damages allowed upon protested bills according to the law of Barbadoes, and that he was not entitled in this case to fifteen per cent. damages, which instruction the court refused to give.

The verdict and judgment being for the plaintiff, for the whole amount demanded in the declaration, the defendant brought his writ of error.

The act of assembly of Virginia (P. P. 113.) provides, 'that where any bill of exchange is or shall be drawn for the payment of any sum of money, in which the value is or shall be expressed to be received, and such bill is or shall be protested for non-acceptance or non-payment, the drawer or endorsor shall be subject to fifteen per centum damages thereon, and the bill shall carry an interest of five per centum per annum, from the date of...