Law Regulating Contracts. IN the following cases, every agreement, contract. and promise, shall be void, unless the same, or some note or memorandum thereof, be in writing, and signed by the party to be charged therewith, or by some person thereunto by him lawfully authorized : 1. Every agreement that, by its terms, is not to be performed in one year from the making thereof. 2. Every special promise to answer for the debt, default, or misdoings of another person. 3. Every agreement, promise, or undertaking, made upon consideration of marriage, except mutual promises to marry. 4. Every special promise made by an executor or administrator to answer damages out of his own estate. No contract for the sale of any goods, wares, or merchandise, for the price of fifty dollars or more, shall be good or valid, unless the purchaser shall accept and receive part of the goods so sold, or shall give something in earnest to bind the bargain, or in part payment, or unless some note or memorandum in writing of the bargain be made and signed by the party to be charged thereby or by some person thereunto by him lawfully authorized. No action shall be brought to charge any person upon or by reason of any favor able representation or assurance made concerning the character, conduct, credit, ability, trade, or dealings, of any other person, unless such representation or assurance be made in writing, and signed by the party to be charged thereby, or by some person thereunto by him lawfully authorized. The consideration need not be expressed in such written contract, note, or memorandum. Limitation of Actions. THE following actions must be brought within six years after the cause of action accrues : 1. All actions of debt, founded upon any contract or liability not under seal, except such as are brought upon the judgment or decree of some court of record of the United States, or of this or of some other of the United States. 2. All actions upon judgments rendered in any court other than those above excepted. 3. All actions for arrears of rent. 4. All actions of assumpsit or upon the case, founded on any contract or liability, express or implied. 5. All actions of waste. 6. All actions of replevin and trover, and all other actious for taking, detaining, or injuring, goods or chattels. 7. All other actions on the case, except actions for slanderous words or for libels. All actions for trespass upon land, or for assault and battery, and for false imprisonment, and slanderous words and libels, shall be commenced within two years. All personal actions upon other contracts must be brought within ten years, and not after. Infants, femme coverts, persons insane, imprisoned, or absent from the United States, at the time any cause of action accrues on their behalf, may bring the same within the times respectively limited after the removal of their disability. The foregoing limitations do not apply to bills or notes issued by a bank. In cases of mutual account, the cause of action shall be deemed to have accrued at the time of the last item proved. When any person is absent from the state at the time a cause of action accrues against him, or subsequently leaves the state, such period of absence is not to be computed. In actions upon any contract, no promise or acknowledgment shall take a case out of the operation of the statute, unless the same is made or contained by or in some writing; nor can one of two or more joint contractors or executors deprive the other of the benefit of the statute, by any written acknowledgment. Collection of Debts. ARREST -No person shall be arrested on demand arising out of contract, except promises to marry, or for moneys collected by any public officer, or for any misconduct or neglect in office or in any professional employment, uuless satisfactory evidence is adduced by the affidavit of the plaintiff or some other person, that there is a debt due the plaintiff from the defendant, specifying the nature and amount thereof as near as may be, for which the defendant can not be arrested, and establishing— 1. That the defendant is about to remove any of his property out of the jurisdiction of the court in which suit is brought, with intent to defraud his creditors; or, 2. That the defendant has property, or rights in action, or some interest in any public or corporate stock, money, or evidence of debt, which he unjustly refuses to apply to the payment of such judgment or decree as shall have been rendered against him, or which he fraudulently conceals; 3. That he has assigned, removed, or disposed of, or is about to dispose of, any of his property or rights in action, with the intent to defraud his creditors; or, 4. That the defendant fraudulently contracted the debt or incurred the obligation respecting which suit is brought. ATTACHMENT. Upon an affidavit being made by the creditor or some person in his behalf, stating that the defendant is justly indebted to the creditor in a sum therein mentioned according to the belief of the deponent, and being more than one hundred dollars, and that the same is due upon a contract, express or implied, or a judgment rendered on such contract; and further, that, deponent knows or has good reason to believe, either 1. That the defendant has absconded, or is about to abscond, from this state, or that he is concealed therein to the injury of his creditors; 2. That defendant has assigned, disposed of, or concealed, or is about to assign, dispose of, or conceal, any of his property, with intent to defraud his creditors; 3. That defendant has removed, or is about to remove, any of his property out of this state, with intent to defraud his creditors; 4. That he fraudulently contracted the debt, or incurred the obligation, respecting which, suit is brought; 5. That the defendant does not reside in this state, and has not resided therein for three months immediately preceding the time of making application for such attachment; or, 6. That defendant is a foreign corporation. The clerk of the circuit court shall issue an attachment against the goods, chat tels, lands, tenements, rights, credits, moneys, and effects, of the defendant. Deeds. CONVEYANCES of lands, or of any estate or interest therein, may be made by deeds, signed and sealed by the person from whom the estate or interest is intended to pass, being of lawful age, or by his lawful agent or attorney, and acknowledged or proved and recorded as directed (below), without any other act or ceremony whatever. A husband and wife may, by their joint deed, convey the real estate of the wife, in like manner as she might do by her separate deed, if she were unmarried; but the wife shall not be bound by any covenant contained in such joint deed. Deeds executed within this state, of lands, or any interest in lands therein, shall be executed in the presence of two witnesses, who shall subscribe their names to the same as such, and the persons executing such deeds may acknowledge the execution thereof before any judge or commissioner of a court of record, or before any notary public, justice of the peace, or master in chancery within the state, and the officer taking such acknowledgment, shall endorse thereon a certificate of the acknowledgment, and the time and date of making the same, under his hand. If any such deed shall be executed in any other state, territory, or district, of the United States, such deed may be executed according to the laws of such state, territory, or district, and the execution thereof may be acknowledged before any judge of a court of record, notary public, justice of the peace, master in chancery, or other officer authorized by the laws of such state, territory, or district, to take the acknowledgment of deeds therein, or before any commissioner appointed by the governor of this state for such purpose. In the cases provided for in the last preceding section, unless the acknowledgment be taken before a commissioner appointed by the governor of this state for that purpose, such deed shall have attached thereto a certificate of the clerk, or other proper certify. ing officer of a court of record of the county or district within which such acknowl edgment was taken, under the seal of his office, that the person whose name is sub. scribed to the certificate of acknowledgment was at the date thereof, such officer as he is therein represented to be, that he believes the signature of such person subscribed thereto to be genuine, and that the deed is executed and acknowledged according to the laws of such state, territory, or district. If such deed be executed in any foreign country it may be executed according to the laws of such country, and the execution thereof may be acknowledged before any notary public therein, or before any minister plenipotentiary, minister extraordinary, minister resident, chargé d'affaires, commissioner, or consul of the United States, appointed to reside therein; which acknowledgment shall be certified thereon by the officer taking the same, under his hand, and if taken before a notary public, his seal of office shall be affixed to such certificate. When any married woman residing in this state, shall join with her husband in a deed of conveyance of real estate, situate within this state, the acknowledgment of the wife shall be taken separately, and apart from her husband, and she shall acknowledge that she executed such deed freely and without any fear or compulsion from any one. When any married woman not residing in this state, shall join with her husband in any conveyance of real estate, situate within this state, the conveyance shall have the same effect as if she were sole, and the acknowledgment or proof of the execution of such conveyance by her, may be the same as if she were sole. Deeds must be recorded by the register of deeds in the county where the lands lie. A scrawl of the pen may be used as a seal. Be it remembered, that on this eighteenth day of March, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, before me, JOHN JONES, a notary public in and for said county, personally came the above (or within) named JOHN DOE, and SUSAN DOE his wife, known to me to be the persons who executed the foregoing instrument, and acknowledged the same to be their free act and deed; and the said SUSAN, wife of the said JOHN DOE, on a private examination, before me, separate and apart from her said husband, acknowledged that she executed the same freely, and without any fear or compulsion from any one. (Seal of Officer.) JOHN JONES, Notary Public. Rights of Married Women. ALL property acquired by any female before marriage, or to which she may be enti tled afterward, continues her separate property, and is not liable for her husband's debts, but is liable for her own debts contracted before marriage. She can not give, grant, or sell, the same without consent of her husband, except by order of court. The constitution of 1851, provides that, "The real and personal estate of every female acquired before marriage, and all property to which she may afterward become entitled by gift, grant. inheritance, or devise, shall be and remain the estate and property of such female, and shall not be liable for the debts, obligations, or engagements, of her husband, and may be devised and bequeathed by her as if she were unmarried." DOWER.-The wife is entitled to dower in all lands of which her husband was seized of an estate of inheritance during coverture. Rate of Interest. THE legal rate is seven per cent., with permission to agree upon any rate not higher than ten per cent. for a loan of money. Contracts are not void for usury beyond the usurious excess. Wills. WILLS must be in writing, subscribed by the testator or by some person in his presence and by his express direction, attested and subscribed in the presence of the testator by two or more competent witnesses. |