Brown v. Joyner
Brown v. Joyner
Opinion of the Court
Curia, per
This case cannot be distinguished from the cases of Young and Monpoey, 2 Bail. 280, and Allcock vs. Ewen, 2 Hill, 326, and several subsequent adjudications recognizing the authority of these decisions. In these cases, it was held, that after the statutory bar was complete, there was then.no legal obligation to pay the debt, no more than if it had never been contracted; and that any subsequent promise or undertaking, to re-establish it, must be co-extensive in its purport with the original demand. In other words, it must restore the debt without qualification or condition. Otherwise the subsequent promise or acknowledgement must be judged of according to its own terms and limitations, and when there are any conditions annexed, they should be set forth as a new cause of action, and ought to be shewn to be performed.
The new undertaking of the defendant, in the case before us, and upon which the plaintiff relies to take the case out of the operation of the statute, took place nine years after he was discharged from his original liability. Did he, by the terms of the new promise, acknowledge a subsisting liability ? So far from it, he affirmed that he had paid the note, by transmitting funds through the mail, and promised
For these reasons, we think the circuit decree should be set aside. Motion granted.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.