5. EFFECT OF MARRIAGE UPON RIGHTS OF PROPERTY.

6. LIMITATION OF ACTIONS.

8. EFFECT OF DEATH UPON THE RIGHTS OF CREDITORS.

9. PROCEEDINGS IN CIVIL SUITS.

1. Bills of Exchange and Promissory Notes.

All bonds, bills, and promissory notes, whether for money or property, are assignable; and the assignee may sue for the same in the same manner the original payee or obligee might sue; but the defendant shall be allowed all discounts, under the rules and regulations prescribed by law, either against the plaintiff, or the original obligee or payee, before notice of the assignment. But the above provision shall not affect the nature of the defence, either in law or equity, that any defendant may have against an assignee or assignees, or the original assignor. (a)

All bills, drafts, and checks, drawn in this state or payable in this state, and all bills, drafts, and checks, drawn by banks or individuals in one state on banks or individuals in another state, in favor of, or held, or indorsed, by citizens of this state, for bank notes, or currency, or current funds, shall be deemed negotiable, and treated in all respects as if drawn for money. (b)

A scrawl affixed to an instrument as a seal, confers upon it all the force and obligation of one. (c)

(a) Morehead & Brown's Digest, 150.

(b) Loughborough's Digest, 108.

(c) M. & B. D. 326.

Interest.-Frauds.-Corporations.

Ten per cent. interest is allowed on all foreign bills which are protested from date until paid, in lieu of damages, but they must be demanded of the drawer within eighteen months from the date of the bill.

2. Interest.

By the act of 1819, the rate of interest is fixed at six per cent.; but the contract is not absolutely void. The lender may recover the amount actually loaned, with lawful interest. If the lender refuse to receive the principal with lawful interest, on a tender thereof previous to a suit, he shall pay the costs of the suit.

The act of 1798 rendered the contract itself utterly void. (a) Six per cent. is held in the courts of the commonwealth to be the prima facie rate of interest authorized to be received in the several states and territories of the Union; but either party may prove the rate to be different. (b)

3. Frauds.

The English statute of frauds and perjuries is in force in Kentucky. (c)

4. Corporations.

By an act passed in 1841, certain provisions were made for all corporations, carrying on any kind of manufacture.

It is enacted, inter alia, that every transfer of stock shall be made by deed, and acknowledged before some justice of the peace, and recorded by the clerk of the corporation in a book to be kept for that purpose.

All the members of the corporation are jointly and severally liable for all debts of the company, until the whole amount of the capital stock shall have been paid in and a certificate thereof recorded in the clerk's office of the County Court of the county

(a) Morehead & Brown's Digest, 856, 852.
(b) Loughborough's Digest, 280.

(c) M. & B. D. 734

Effect of Marriage upon the Rights of Property.-Limitation of Actions.

where the manufactory is established. This certificate must be made within thirty days after the last instalment is paid in, and is signed and sworn to by the president, clerk, treasurer, and a majority of the directors.

The corporation shall make an annual publication of its condition, and on failure to do so, the president and directors are made individually liable for all debts of the company then existing, or that may be contracted before the notice is given.

The corporation is prohibited, on pain of forfeiting its charter, from issuing any notes to pass as currency. (a)

5. Effect of Marriage on the Rights of Property.

The estate of the husband is not liable for the debts or engagements of the wife, contracted before marriage. On the other hand, neither the land nor slaves of a married woman, possessed at the time of marriage or acquired during coverture, are liable for his debts, nor can his estate in them during her life be taken on execution. But such property, both land and slaves, excepting the husband's right of courtesy, may be sold in payment of her debts created before the marriage, or in payment of debts contracted by her in writing jointly with her husband, for necessaries furnished to any member of the family. The slaves of the wife may be sold by the husband and wife jointly in the same manner as real estate. Upon the death of the wife, her slaves descend to her heirs at law, as realty, subject to a life estate of the husband in them. (b)

6. Limitation of Actions.

Actions on the case, other than for slander, actions for account, actions of debt grounded on any lending or contract without specialty, all actions for arrearages of rent, all actions of detinue and replevin, all actions of trespass, quare clausum fregit, or to goods and chattels, must be brought within five years; actions of assault and battery, wounding and imprisonment, within three years; and actions of slander within one year after the words spoken. (b) Acts of 1846, 43.

(a) Lough. Dig. 149.

Attachment.

All actions or suits founded upon account for goods, wares, and merchandise, sold and delivered, or for any article charged in any store account, shall be commenced within twelve months next after the cause of such action, or the delivery of such goods, except that in case of the death of the creditor or debtor before the expiration of the twelve months, the further time of twelve months from such death shall be allowed before the commencement of the action. Any merchant who shall post-date his account is liable to a penalty of ten times the value of the article sold. If the merchant should obtain judgment, and the judgment be reversed or arrested, he may commence a new action in one year thereafter. From the first of July, 1838, all sureties are discharged from liability on judgments, on bonds in appeals, supersedeas, sale, and replevin, on bonds in attachment, ne exeat, for the forthcoming of property, or to abide by the decree of a court, or for costs, when seven years shall have elapsed without execution on the judgment, unless delayed by dilatory proceedings on the part of the defendant; or when seven years after the cause of action accrued, shall have elapsed, without suit on the bond which is the foundation of the action.

On administration and guardian-bonds, sureties are discharged from liability to distributees, devisees, or wards, when five years have elapsed without suit after the youngest have arrived at majority. On all other written obligations, sureties are discharged from liability when seven years have elapsed without suit.

But if the surety should abscond or conceal himself, or use any indirect ways to defeat or obstruct his creditor, he cannot claim the benefit of the above provisions.

The statute of limitations does not begin to run until the usual disabilities are removed, viz., infancy, coverture, imprisonment, insanity, and absence beyond seas. (a)

7. Attachment-Foreign and Judicial.

A justice of the peace may issue a writ of attachment whenever a creditor makes complaint before him that his debtor is

(a) Morehead & Brown's Dig. 1132-37, Lough. Dig. 558.

Effect of Death upon the Rights of Creditors.

privately removing out of the county, or absconds so that the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon him. The attachment is levied upon the slaves and goods and chattels of the defendant, and may be served by any constable or sheriff. If the debt is not more than fifty dollars, the writ is returned to the magistrate, but if the debt exceeds that sum, it is returned to the Circuit Court. Where the levy has been made by the constable, and the debt is over fifty dollars, he is to deliver the property attached to the sheriff. The justice must take bond and good security for the payment by the complainant of all damages and costs to the defendant in case the plaintiff is cast in his suit. The property may be replevied, but if it is not, judgment is given for the plaintiff, and the goods sold in the same manner as goods taken on a writ of fieri facias. Property in the hands of a garnishee may also be attached. It is also provided that where there is a return of "not found" on a capias or warrant, the plaintiff may sue out an attachment against the estate of the defendant to force an appearance, and proceed substantially as above. (a)

Where any debtor is about to remove his property from the commonwealth, or to dispose of the same with the intention of delaying or defrauding his creditors, the Courts of Chancery are authorized, upon a bill filed by any creditor, whether the debt be due or not, to attach the property and arrest such fraudulent sale or removal, and upon the establishment of an intention on the part of the debtor either to remove or fraudulently to dispose of his property, to cause the same to be applied to the payment of the debt. The bill of the creditor must be sworn to, and bond given with sufficient security for the payment of any damage that may be sustained by the wrongful emanation of the order, before such injunction can be granted. (b)

8. Effect of Death upon the Rights of Creditors.

By an act passed in 1839, all debts are declared of equal dignity in the administration of estates, and are to be paid ratably, except that burial expenses, and costs and charges of administra(b) Acts of 1838, 213.

(a) Lough. Dig. 46.