7. EFFECT OF MARRIAGE UPON THE RIGHTS OF PROPERTY. 10. EFFECT OF DEATH UPON THE RIGHTS OF CREDITORS. All joint bonds, covenants, bills, promissory notes, or judg ments of any court of record within the United States, are to be respectively deemed and construed in law, as joint and several instruments. (a) All bonds, obligations, promissory notes, and all other writings for the payment of money, or any other thing, may be assigned by indorsement, whether the same be made payable to the order or assigns of the obligee or payee or not, or whether made payaable to a fictitious person or bearer; and the assignee may sue in his own name, and maintain any action which the obligee or payee might have maintained thereon previous to assignment, the defendant, however, to be allowed the benefit of all set-offs, discounts, and payments made or acquired before notice of the assignment; and the assignee may also maintain an action against the person assigning or indorsing the same, as in cases of inland bills of exchange. (b) (a) Clay's Digest, 323. (b) Ib. 382. Proceedings in Civil Suits. who have debts or demands against the estate to present them. All debts or demands, not exhibited within the space of two years from the granting of the letters, are barred, provided notice of that fact has been given for four weeks previous, by advertisement once a week in some newspaper printed in the state. The rights of infants, feme coverts, persons non compos mentis, imprisoned, and beyond seas, are protected for the additional term of two years after the removal of their respective disabilities. (a) Debts are to be discharged in the following order: 1. The necessary funeral expenses. 2. Debts due for board and lodging during the last sickness of the deceased. 3. Bills for medical attention, nursing, or medicines furnished during the last sickness. 4. Judgments of record rendered and docketed in the state during the lifetime of the deceased, and all debts due to the state. And finally all other debts, whether by specialty or otherwise. without distinction of rank. (b) .Executors and administrators are required to render an annual account of their administration to the Courts of Probate, and any neglect of this requisition will subject them to the loss of their commissions. The court, however, will not allow any account to be settled, unless the executor or administrator has given previous notice for two months, by written advertisement, of their intention to present their accounts for such purpose. An executor who fails to settle his accounts at the proper period, may be compelled to do so by coercive process issued by the respective probate judges (c) (a) Thon.p. Dig. 205. (b) Ib. 206. (c) Ib. 211. 7. EFFECT OF MARRIAGE UPON THE RIGHTS OF PROPERTY. 10. EFFECT OF DEATH UPON THE RIGHTS OF CREDITORS. All joint bonds, covenants, bills, promissory notes, or judg ments of any court of record within the United States, are to be respectively deemed and construed in law, as joint and several instruments. (a) All bonds, obligations, promissory notes, and all other writings for the payment of money, or any other thing, may be assigned by indorsement, whether the same be made payable to the order or assigns of the obligee or payee or not, or whether made payaable to a fictitious person or bearer; and the assignee may sue in his own name, and maintain any action which the obligee or payee might have maintained thereon previous to assignment, the defendant, however, to be allowed the benefit of all set-offs, discounts, and payments made or acquired before notice of the assignment; and the assignee may also maintain an action against the person assigning or indorsing the same, as in cases of inland bills of exchange. (b) (a) Clay's Digest, 323. (b) Ib. 382. Contracts and Choses in Action. The assignee of any instrument for the payment of money, except a bill of exchange foreign or inland, or a promissory note payable in bank, in order to hold the assignor responsible, must bring suit, to the first court of the county where the maker resides, to which the writ can be properly returnable, unless suit be delayed with the consent of the assignor. A return of "nulla bona" upon a writ of fieri facias, on a judgment against the maker, shall be sufficient evidence of insolvency to authorize a recovery against the assignor or indorser upon his assignment or indorsement. (a) Bills of exchange, foreign and inland, and promissory notes payable in bank, are governed by the rules of the law merchant as to days of grace, protest, and notice. Bills drawn and payable within the state, are deemed inland bills, and those drawn here and payable out of the state, are deemed foreign bills. (b) Bonds and other instruments payable in bank, are governed by the rules of the law merchant as to days of grace, demand, and notice, in the same manner that bills of exchange and notes payable in bank are, and also as to set-offs and defence. (c) Any instrument in writing, signed by the owner of a cottongin, or his agent, acknowledging the receipt of a certain quantity of cotton, may be assigned as inland bills of exchange are by the custom of merchants in England, so as to vest in the indorsee a right of action thereon. (d) Rates of damages upon protested bills.-On all bills of exchange drawn by any persons in the state, and payable at any place within the state, and on all bills of exchange, or drafts drawn by any person in the state, upon any person either in or out of the state, and payable at any bank or other place in the city of New Orleans, that may be purchased or discounted by the bank of the state of Alabama, or any branch thereof, and which may be protested for non-acceptance or non-payment, the damages are five per cent. On bills of exchange drawn upon persons within the United States, but without the limits of the state, the damages on protest for non-payment are ten per cent. besides legal interest, from and after the date of such protest. On all bills drawn upon persons resident out of the jurisdiction of the United (b) Ib. (c) Ib. 384. (d) Ib. 380. (a) Clay's Digest 383. Interest.-Corporations.-Limited Partnerships. States, which are protested, the damages are twenty per cent. on the principal sum mentioned in such bills respectively, and all charges incidental thereto, with lawful interest until paid. (a) The protest of a notary public setting forth a demand, refusal, non-acceptance, or non-payment of any inland bill of exchange or other protestable security; and that legal notice, expressing in said protest the time when given of such facts, was personally or through the post-office given to any of the parties entitled by law to notice, is made evidence of the facts it purports to contain. (b) Promissory notes always import a consideration till the contrary is shown. 2. Interest. Eight per cent. is the rate of interest allowed by law; but contracts and assurances in which a higher rate of interest is reserved, are only void as to the interest. The principal sum loaned may be recovered. be recovered. Where more than eight per cent. interest is taken, the lender is liable to a qui tam action for the whole value or amount together with the entire interest. Where a suit is brought upon any instrument alleged to be usurious, the borrower is a good and sufficient witness to prove the usury, unless the lender will deny upon oath in open court the facts which such witness proposes to establish. (c) 3. Corporations. No corporation invested with the privileges of banking and the authority to discount bills of exchange and promissory notes by any other state, can exercise such privileges by agent or otherwise in the state of Alabama. (d) 4. Limited Partnerships. By an act passed in 1837, limited partnerships are authorized in Alabama. The provisions of this law are identical with (a) Clay's Digest 381. (b) Ib. 380. (c) Ib. 589. (d) Ib. 133. |