Milligan v. Marshall
Milligan v. Marshall
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
By deed of Jacob Heltzheimer to Alexander Marshall, dated September 8, 1797, and duly recorded, there is “reserved a yearly rent of Twenty-eight Spanish Milled Silver Dollars, each
The affidavit of defense states that on October 9, and before suit was brought, a proper tender was made of the full amount of the exact kind of money stipulated in the deed, and that the acceptance thereof was refused. This tender was renewed in the affidavit of defense for the described money for the six months’ ground rent, due October 1, 1906. The court made absolute a rule for judgment against the appellant, for want of a sufficient affidavit of defense, and the damages were assessed at $14.58. No opinion was filed in the court below, consequently we are at a loss to know exactly upon what ground and for what reason the court made its order.
The ground rent is irredeemable, and the appellant claims the right to pay it as it accrues, in the kind of money called for in the deed. It is conceded on argument that the real question is one of tender, and it is urged by the appellee that the tender was not good, for the reason that it did not embrace interest on the amount admitted to be due; the tender having been made nine days after the ground rent matured, this interest being about one and one-quarter cents.
A creditor is not bound to accept less than the full amount of his demand, and a tender of part-only of a single entire demand is of no effect; it makes no difference that the insufficiency in amount arises from an honest mistake on the part of the debtor; the mistake must be regarded as his mistake: 28 Am. & Eng. Ency. of Law (2d ed.), p. 17.' The court is obliged judicially to notice the fact that the ground rent reserved in the deed is at present a debased currency for which we have only a computed equivalent in the money, current as such in this country. The character of the circulating medium and the popular language in reference to it are to be judicially noticed by the court: Was-son v. First National Bank of Indianapolis, 107 Ind. 206; 17 Am. & Eng. Ency. of Law (2d ed.), 899.
The reason for refusing the tender is not stated, whether it was because of the debased currency, as it was called by the appellee, or on account of the one cent or one and one-quarter cents of interest. If for the reason that the one cent or one and one-quarter cents was withheld, it may well be held to be not a sufficient reason, being too insignificant to be considered. As between the original parties, the ground rent reserved in Spanish milled silver dollars was recognized and in use at that time as money throughout the United States, and as described in the ground rent deed, it came within the definition of money. However, such coins were demonetized by act of congress 1857, February 21, sec. 3, and while the legislation may not extinguish the debt, it may affect the current value of the coin mentioned in the contract, and with which the debt may be paid or tendered.
In Johnson v. Ash, 142 Pa. 45, the Supreme Court held that: "It is to be presumed that when the ground rent was created, the reservation of the rent in Spanish milled silver dollars was
An agreement to pay in one of several lawful kinds of money will be enforced as between coin and paper, but not as between gold and silver, payment as between the latter being at the election of the payor, provided always that the coin chosen is legal tender at the time of payment: Rankin v. Demott, 61 Pa. 263; Morris v. Bancroft, 1 W. N. C. 223; Reinhart v. Collins, 2 W. N. C. 305. The plaintiff claims that the dollar value remains unchanged, by bringing his suit for $14.25. The appellant concedes that had the judgment been entered against him, in the money equivalent of the value of Spanish milled silver dollars, viz.: $9.25 without costs, he would have been content, under authority of Christ Church Hospital v. Fuechsel, 54 Pa. 71; Cadwallader on Ground Rents, 200; Shoenberger v. Watts, 5 Philadelphia, 51.
This contract is not hampered with the added and alternative provisions mentioned in some of the cases, as “or lawful money of the United States,” or “specie gold or silver money of the United States,” as an elective equivalent of the kind of money first designated in the contract. Had payment of this ground rent been tendered in any other kind of coin or money than that specially stipulated for, it could have been rightfully refused by the owner of the ground rent, as not being in compliance with the money specifically designated in the deed, and as the claimant in this case seeks to recover the ground rent in the equivalent of the current money of the day, he must accept that substituted money on the basis of present current value, which is not to be determined by the mere number of dollars as of the date of the contract.
The tender being good, it is not necessary to consider the other questions raised by the record, and the judgment is reversed, the record to be remitted with a procedendo.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.