Walker v. Whitehead

• Decision Date: 01 December 1872
• Citation: 16 Wall. 314,83 U.S. 314,21 L.Ed. 357
• Parties: WALKER v. WHITEHEAD
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

83 U.S. 314

21 L.Ed. 357

16 Wall. 314

WALKER v. WHITEHEAD.

December Term, 1872

IN error to the Supreme Court of the State of Georgia.

Mr. P. Phillips, for the plaintiff in error; no opposing counsel.

Mr. Justice SWAYNE stated the case, and delivered the opinion of the court.

The case, as it appears in the record, is as follows: On the 1st of January, 1870, the plaintiff in error instituted this suit against the defendant in error upon a promissory note, made by the latter to the former, dated March 28th, 1864, for $7219.47, payable on the 19th of March then next ensuing. The defendant interposed two pleas:

1st. That after the maturity of the note he had tendered payment in Confederate treasury notes.

2d. That he was a loser by the result of the late war against the United States of one hundred negroes worth $50,000, and of Confederate securities of the value of $20,000; that he was a citizen of the Confederate States who waged and carried on that war, and that he pleads those losses as an offset to the demand of the plaintiff to the amount of the principal and interest of that demand.

When the case was called on the calendar the defendant moved the court to dismiss it, because the plaintiff had not filed an affidavit of the payment of the taxes upon the note as required by the act of the legislature of Georgia of the 13th of October, 1870. The plaintiff objected upon several grounds. The court overruled his objection, and dismissed the case. The plaintiff thereupon removed it to the Supreme Court of the State. That court affirmed the judgment of the court below.

The first and second sections of the act referred to are as follows:

'SECTION 1. That in all suits pending, or hereafter brought, in or before any court of the State, founded upon any debt or contract or cause of action made or implied before the 1st June, 1865, or upon any other debt or contract in renewal thereof, it shall not be lawful for the plaintiff to have a verdict or judgment in his favor, unless he has made it clearly to appear before the tribunal trying the same that all legal taxes chargeable by law upon the same have been duly paid for each year since the making or implying of said debt or contract.

'SECTION 2. In any suit now pending, or hereafter brought, it shall be the duty of the plaintiff, within six months after the passage of this act, if the suit be pending, and at the filing of the writ, if the suit be hereafter brought, to file with the clerk of the court of justice an affidavit, if the suit was founded on any debt or contract as described in section one, that all legal charges chargeable by law upon such debt or contract have been duly paid, or the income thereon for each year since the making of the same, and that he expects to prove the same upon the trial; and, upon failure to file such affidavit as herein required, said suit shall, on motion, be dismissed.'

The fourth section declares it to be a condition precedent to a recovery that 'the said debt has been regularly given in for taxes, and the taxes paid.'

The fifth section provides, in respect of judgments already rendered, that no levy or sale shall be made unless an affidavit be made that all taxes 'have been duly paid from the time of making said contract to the time of attaching the affidavit.'

The sixth section provides that in all cases of indebtedness of this class the defendant may offset 'any losses he may have suffered by, or in consequence of, the late war against the United States,' whether the said losses 'be from the destruction or depreciation of property.'

The seventh section declares that these damages shall not be considered as 'too remote or speculative, if it appear that they were fairly and legitimately produced, directly or indirectly, by said war or the results thereof.'

The ninth section provides that these losses by...