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Any person owning and occupying any dwelling-house on land not his own, which land he shall be rightfully in possession of by lease or otherwise, and claiming such house as his homestead, shall be entitled to the exemption of such house.

Mechanics' Lien.

ALL and every dwelling-house hereafter constructed and erected in the state of Wisconsin, with the right, title, and interest of the person or persons owning such dwelling-house or other buildings in and to the land upon which the same shall be situated, not exceeding forty acres; or if erected within the limits of any city, town, or village plot, the lot on which such dwelling-house or other building shall be situated, not exceeding in extent one acre, shall be subject to the pay. ment of the debts contracted for or by reason of any work done, or materials found and provided, by any brickmaker, bricklayer, stonecutter, mason, limemerchant, carpenter, painter and glazier, ironmonger, plasterer, and lumber merchant, or any other persons employed in erecting or furnishing materials for and in the erection and construction of such house or other building, before any other lien which originated subsequent to the commencement of such house or other building.

Sub-contractors must give notice to the owner within thirty days after the work is done or materials furnished to the owner, or be debarred from their lien. Lien to continue only one year.

Chattel Mortgages.

No mortgage of personal property hereafter made shall be valid against any other person than the parties thereto, unless possession of the mortgaged property be delivered to and retained by the mortgagee, or unless the mortgage be filed in the office of the town-clerk where the mortgager resides; or, in case he does not reside in the state, in the town where the property mortgaged may be at the time of executing the same.

Law regulating Contracts.

In the following cases, every agreement shall be void, unless such agreement, or some note or memorandum thereof, expressing the consideration, be in writing, and subscribed by the party charged therewith:

1. Every agreement that by the terms is not to be performed within one year from the making thereof.

2. Every special promise to answer for the debt, default, or miscarriage, of another person.

3. Every agreement, promise, or undertaking, made upon consideration of marriage, except mutual promises to marry.

Every contract for the sale of any goods, chattels, or things in action, for the price of fifty dollars or more, shall be void, unless

1. A note or memorandum of such contract be made in writing, and be subscribed by the parties to be charged therewith.

2. Unless the buyer shall accept and receive part of such goods, or the evidences, or some of them, of such things in action.

3. Unless the buyer shall, at the time, pay some part of the purchase-money.

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Limitation of Actions.

ACTIONS for the recovery of lands must be brought within twenty years after the cause of action accrued.

Infants, persons insane, imprisoned, and married women, have ten years after the removal of their disability.

The following actions shall be commenced within six years next after the cause of action shall accrue, and not afterward:

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 any state or territory of the United States.

2. All actions upon judgments rendered in any court not being a court of record. 3. All actions for arrears of rent.

4. All actions of assumpsit, or on the case, founded on any contract or liability, express or implied.

5. All actions for waste and for trespass on land.

6. All actions of replevin, and all other actions for taking, detaining, or injuring, goods or chattels.

7. All other actions on the case, except actions for slanderous words and libels. All actions for assault and battery, and for false imprisonment, and all actions for slanderous words and for libels, shall be commenced within two years.

None of the foregoing provisions shall apply to any action brought upon a promissory note which is signed in the presence of an attesting witness, provided the action be brought by the original payee, or by his executor or administrator: nor to an action brought upon any bills, notes, or other evidences of debt, issued by any bank.

In all actions brought to recover the balance due upon a mutual and open account current, the cause of action shall be deemed to have accrued at the time of the last item proved in such account.

It shall be lawful for any person against whom any action shall be commenced in any court of this state, when the cause of action accrued without the state, upon a contract or agreement, express or implied, more than six years before the commencement of the action, or upon any sealed or attested instrument in writing, a judgment or decree of any court more than ten years before the commencement of the action, to plead the same, and give the same in bar of the plaintiff's right of action.

All personal actions on any contract not limited by the foregoing or by any other law of this state, shall be brought within twenty years after the accruing of the cause of action. Persons under age, insane, imprisoned, or absent from the United States, and married women, may have the same periods respectively after the removal of their disability.

Collection of Debts.

ATTACHMENT. An attachment may issue against the property of a debtor when the plaintiff, or some one on his behalf, shall make an affidavit, stating that the defendant is indebted to the plaintiff, and specifying the amount of such debt over and above all set-offs, and that the same is due on contract, express or implied or upon judgment or decree; and containing, further, a statement that the 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; or

2. That the 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; or

3. That the defendant has removed or is about to remove any of his property out of this state, with intent to defraud his creditors; or

4. That he fraudulently contracted the debt or incurred the obligation respect

ing which the suit is brought; or

5. That the defendant is not a resident of this state; or

6. That the defendant is a foreign corporation; or

7. That the defendant has fraudulently conveyed or disposed of his property,

or a part of it, or is about fraudulently to convey or dispose of the same, or a part of it, with intent to defraud his creditors.

ARREST.-No person shall be imprisoned for debt arising out of or founded on a contract, express or implied.

Deeds.

CONVEYANCES of lands, or of any estate, or interest therein, may be by deed, 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.

Deeds executed within this state of lands or any interest 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 or justice of the peace within the state; and the officer taking such acknowledgment shall endorse thereon a certificate of the acknowledgment thereof, and the true date of making the same, under his hand.

If 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 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.

that

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 purpose, such deed shall have attached thereto a certificate of the clerk or other proper certifying officer of a court of record of the county or district within which such acknowledgment was taken, under the seal of his office, that the person whose name is subscribed 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 in a foreign country, then before a notary public, or minister plenipotentiary, or minister resident, or consul, appointed to reside therein.

When any married woman residing in this state, shall join with her husband in any deed of conveyance of or relating to real estate, situate within this state, or when she alone without joining with her husband, shall execute a release of dower, her acknowledgment or the proof of the execution of such deed, conveyance, or release, may be taken and certified the same as if she were sole, and if so taken and certified shall entitle such deed, conveyance, or release, to be recorded.

State of Wisconsin,

Form of Acknowledgment.

County of Dodge,

SS.

Be it remembered, that on this tenth day of March, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, before me, JOHN JONES, a notary public, in and for said county, personally appeared JOHN DOE and SUSAN his wife, to me known to be the persons described in and who executed the foregoing deed, and severally acknowledged that they executed the same.

(Seal.)

JOHN JONES, Notary Public.

Deeds must be recorded in the office of the register of deeds of the county where the lands lie.

A scroll or device, used as a seal, shall have the same effect as a seal; this does not apply to official seals.

Rights of Married Women.

but

THE widow shall be entitled to dower cf one third of all the lands whereof her husband was seized of an estate of inheritance at any time during the mar. riage, unless she is lawfully barred.

Rate of Interest.

ANY rate of interest, not exceeding twelve per cent., agreed upon by the parties in contract, specifying the same in writing, is legal and valid; if more be taken the whole debt is forfeited.

When no rate of interest is agreed upon or specified in a note or other contract, seven per cent. per annum shall be the legal rate.

Wills.

WILLS must be in writing, and signed by the testator, or by some person in his presence and by his express direction, and attested and subscribed in the presence of the testator by two or more competent witnesses.

CALIFORNIA.

Constitution adopted 1849.-Square Miles, 188,981.-Population in 1849, 125,000.

Mechanics' Lien.

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ALL master-builders, mechanics, lumber-merchants, and all other persons performing labor or furnishing materials for the construction or repair of any building or wharf, shall have a lien, separately or jointly, upon the building or buildings, or wharf, which they may have constructed or repaired, or for which they may have furnished materials of any description, to the extent of the labor done or materials furnished, or for both.

Any such contractor, journeyman, or laborer, who may be employed in the construction or repairing of any building or wharf, or in furnishing any materials for the same, may give to the owner or owners of the building or buildings, or wharf, on which he may have worked, or for the construction of which he may have furnished materials, notice in writing, particularly setting forth the amount of his claim, and the service rendered, for which his employer is indebted to him, and that he holds said owner or owners responsible for the same; and the owner is hereby made liable for the amount so claimed, if indebted to the employer to the amount; if not, then to the amount due from him to said employer at the time such notice was served. When any such contractor, journeyman, or laborer, shall have given the notice prescribed in the preceding section, he shall present to his employer a copy of such notice for his endorsement. If such employer endorse thereon that the claim is correct, the owner or other person liable shall pay the same, if indebted to the employer in the amount; if not, then the amount due from him to said employer at the time the notice was served. If he fail or refuse so to pay, such sub-contractor, journeyman, or laborer, shall, within thirty days after the service of the notice, commence an action in the proper court to enforce his lien. If, by the terms of the contract between the owner and the contractor, the money be payable at some future day, such sub-contractor, journeyman, or laborer, may file the copy of the notice, with the endorsement thereon, In the recorder's office of the county in which the building or wharf is situated; and shall have thirty days after the money becomes due in which to commence his action. If he fail to commence his action as prescribed in this section, his lien shall be lost.

If the employer fail or refuse to make the endorsement required by the preceding section, such sub-contractor, journeyman, or laborer, shall lose his lien for the amount elaimed, unless he shall, within thirty days after the service of the notice, commence an action in the proper court against his employer to establish the amount of the claim. If he obtain judgment against his employer, he shall lose his lien for the amount thereof, anless, within thirty days thereafter, he shall commence an action against the owner for the amount established by the judgment, if the money be then due from the owner to the contractor; if not, then he shall file in the recorder's office of the county in which the building or wharf is situated, a notice of said claim and judgment; and shall commence his action against the owner within thirty days after the money is due from the owner to the contractor.

The owner or other person made liable, as aforesaid, for the amount admitted to be due, or established by judgment, may set off the same in any action brought against him by the contractor or person otherwise entitled to recover the same, under the contract. The land upon which any building shall be erected, together with the space around the same, not exceeding five hundred square feet, clear of the building, shall also be subject to the above lien, if the said land shall have been at the time of the erecting of the building the property of the person or persons, corporation or association, contracting for the erection or repair of the same.

Any person wishing to avail himself of the provisions of the first section of this act, whether his claim be due or not, shall file in the recorder's office of the county in which the building or wharf is situated, at any time before the expiration of sixty days after the completion of the building or repairs, notice of his intention to hold a lien upon the

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