thereupon, the said creditor or creditors may put in suit against such legatee, or person claiming distribution and their sureties, at his, her, or their own costs and charges, and for his, her, or their own use and benefit; but shall recover no costs. thereupon.

SECT. 15. All actions or informations, which shall be brought or exhibited for any forfeiture upon any penal statute made or to be made, whereby the said forfeiture is or shall be limited to the State of New Jersey only, shall be brought or exhibited within two years next after the offence committed or to be committed against such penal statute, and not after. And all actions or informations, which shall be brought or exhibited for any forfeiture upon any penal statute made or to be made, the benefit and suit whereof is or shall be, by the said statute, limited or given to any person or persons, who shall prosecute for the same, or to the State of New Jersey and to any other, who shall prosecute in that behalf, shall be brought or exhibited by any person or persons, who may lawfully pursue for the same as aforesaid, within one year next after the offence committed or to be committed against the said statute; and in default of such pursuit, that then the same shall be brought or exhibited for the State of New Jersey, at any time within one year after the termination of the aforesaid year, and not after. And all actions or informations, which shall be brought or exhibited for any forfeiture or cause upon any statute made or to be made, the benefit and suit whereof is or shall be limited or given to the party aggrieved, shall be brought or exhibited within the space of two years next after the offence committed, or to be committed, or cause of action accrued, and not after: Provided, always, where any action or information is or shall be limited by any statute to be brought or exhibited within a shorter time than is limited by this section, then the said action or information shall be brought or exhibited within such shorter time so limited by such statute.

Supplement, passed 21st February, 1820, enacts:- SECT. 1. If any person or persons, against whom there is or shall be any such cause of action as is specified in the first, second, third, fifth, sixth, and seventh sections of the act to which this is a supplement, shall not be resident in this State when such cause of

action accrues, or shall remove from this State after the same shall [*lxxiii] accrue, and before the time of limitation mentioned in said * section is

expired, then the time or times during which such person or persons shall not reside in this State as aforesaid, shall not be computed as part of the said limited period within which such action or actions are required to be brought as aforesaid; but the person or persons having, or who may have such cause of action as aforesaid, shall be entitled to all the time mentioned in the said several sections, for bringing their said actions after the cause thereof shall accrue, exclusive of the time or times during which the person or persons liable to such actions shall be not resident in this State as aforesaid.

Supplement, passed 21st February, 1829, enacts:- SECT. 1. From and after the passing of this act, any prosecution hereafter to be had or commenced upon any bond heretofore given by any constable and his securities, for the true and faithful performance of all the duties enjoined on him as constable, shall in no

wise operate against, or in any manner affect the said securities mentioned or bound in said bond, unless such prosecution shall be commenced within three years after the passing of this act, nor shall any prosecution, had or commenced upon any bond hereafter to be given by any constable and his securities as aforesaid, in any wise operate against or affect the said securities named and bound in said bond, unless such prosecution shall be commenced within four years after the date of the said bond, and not after.

PENNSYLVANIA.

Personal Actions. (Digest of Laws of Pennsylvania, 1837, p. 657.)

SECTION 1. All actions of trespass quare clausum fregit, all actions of detinue, trover, and replevin, for taking away goods and cattle, all actions upon account and upon the case (other than such accounts as concern the trade of merchandise between merchant and merchant, their factors or servants), all actions of debt, grounded upon any lending or contract without specialty, all actions of debt for arrearages of rent, except the proprietaries quit rents, and all actions of trespass, of assault, menace, battery, wounding, and imprisonment, or any of them, which shall be sued or brought at any time after the fifth and twentieth day of April, which shall be in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and thirteen, shall be commenced and sued within the time and limitation hereafter expressed, and not after; that is to say, the said actions upon the case, other than for slander, and the said actions for account, and the said actions for trespass, debt, detinue, and replevin for goods or cattle, and the said actions of trespass quare clausum fregit, within six years next after the cause of such actions or

suit, and not after. And the said actions of trespass, of assault, [*lxxiv] menace, battery, wounding, imprisonment, or any of them, within two

years next after the cause of such actions or suit, and not after. And the said actions upon the case for words, within one year next after the words spoken, and not after.

SECT. 2. If in any of the said actions or suits, judgment be given for the plaintiff, and the same be reversed by error, or a verdict passed for the plaintiff, and upon matter alleged in arrest of judgment, the judgment be given against the plaintiff, that he take nothing by his plaint, writ, or bill, then, and in every such case, the party plaintiff, his heirs, executors, or administrators, as the case may require, may commence a new action or suit, from time to time, within a year after such judgment reversed, or given against the plaintiff as aforesaid, and not after.

SECT. 3. In all actions of trespass quare clausum fregit hereafter to be brought, wherein the defendant or defendants shall disclaim, in his or their plea, to make any title or claim to the land in which the trespass is by the declaration supposed to be done, and the trespass be by negligence or involuntary, the defendant or defendants shall be admitted to plead a disclaimer, and that the

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trespass was by negligence or involuntary, and a tender or offer of sufficient amends for such trespass, before the action brought: whereupon, or upon some of them, the plaintiff or plaintiffs shall be enforced to join issue; and if the said issue be found for the defendant or defendants, or if the plaintiff or plaintiffs shall be nonsuited, the plaintiff or plaintiff's shall be clearly barred from the said action or actions, and all other suit concerning the same.

SECT. 4. In all actions upon the case, for slanderous words, to be used or prosecuted by any person or persons, in any court within this province, after the said twenty-fifth day of April next, if the jury upon trial of the issue in such action, or the jury that shall inquire of the damages, do find or assess the damages under forty shillings, then the plaintiff or plaintiffs in such action shall have and recover only so much costs as the damages so given or assessed, do amount unto, without any further increase of the same.

SECT. 5. Provided, nevertheless, That if any person or persons, who is or shall be entitled to any such action of trespass, detinue, trover, replevin, actions of account, debt, actions for trespass, for assault, menace, battery, wounding or imprisonment, actions upon the case for words, be, or, at the time of any cause of such action given or accrued, fallen, or come, shall be within the age of twenty-one years, feme covert, non compos mentis, imprisoned or beyond the sea, that then such person or persons shall be at liberty to bring the same actions, so as they take the same within such times as are hereby before limited, after their coming to or being of full age, discoverture, of sound memory, at large, or returning into this province, as other persons.

Possession of Real Property.

* lxxv] * SECTION 1. Whereas it is necessary for the quieting of estates, and for the greater security of real property, that provision should be made for the limitation of actions to be brought for any manors, lands, tenements, or hereditaments:

SECT. 2. From henceforth no person or persons whatsoever, shall make entry into any manors, lands, tenements, or hereditaments, after the expiration of twenty-one years next after his, her, or their right or title to the same first descended or accrued; nor shall any person or persons whatsoever have or maintain any writ of right, or any other real or possessory writ or action, for any manor, lands, tenements, or hereditaments, of the seisin or possession of him, her or themselves, his, her, or their ancestors or predecessors, nor declare or allege any other seisin or possession of him, her, or themselves, his, her or their ancestors or predecessors, than within twenty-one years next before such writ, action, or suit so hereafter to be sued, commenced or brought.

SECT. 3. Provided, That any person or persons now having right, title of entry as aforesaid, and the heir or heirs of such person or persons, may, within fifteen years from this time, enter, or commence any action or suit, as he, she or they, or his, her or their ancestors or predecessors might have done before the passing of this act.

SECT. 4. Provided, also, That if any person or persons having such right or title, be, or shall be at the time such right or title first descended or accrued,

within the age of twenty-one years, feme covert, non compos mentis, imprisoned [or beyond the seas, or from and without the United States of America], then such person or persons, and the heir or heirs of such person or persons, shall and may, notwithstanding the said twenty-one years be expired, bring his or their action, or make his or their entry, as he, she or they might have done, before the passing of this act, so as such person or persons, or the heir or heirs of such person or persons, shall within ten years next after attaining full age, discoverture, soundness of mind, enlargement out of prison [or coming into the said United States], take benefit of or sue for the same, and no time after the said ten years; and in case such person or persons shall die within the said term of ten years, under any of the disabilities aforesaid, the heir or heirs of such person or persons shall have the same benefit that such person or persons could or might have had, by living until the disabilities should have ceased or been removed; and if any abatement happen in any proceeding or proceedings upon such right or title, such proceeding or proceedings may be renewed and continued, within three years from the time of such abatement, but not afterward.

SECT. 5. No person or persons that now hath or have any claim to the possession of any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, or the preëmption *thereof, from the commonwealth, founded upon any prior warrant, [*lxxvi] whereon no survey hath been made, or in consequence of any prior settlement, improvement or occupation, without other title, shall hereafter enter or bring any action for the recovery thereof, unless he, she or they, or his, her or their ancestors or predecessors, have had the quiet and peaceable possession of the same within seven years next before such entry, or bringing such action: Provided, always, That if any person or persons so claiming as aforesaid, hath been forced or driven away from his, her, or their possessions, by the savages, or by the terror of them, or any other persons, or by any other means, except by the judicial authority of the State, hath quitted the same, during the late war, then such person or persons, and his, her, or their heir or heirs, shall or may, notwithstanding the said seven years be expired, bring his, her or their action, or make his, her or their entry within five years from the passing of this

act.

SECT. 6 relates to bills, indictments, and informations.

SECT. 7. No deed, grant, conveyance, or assurance heretofore given by any sheriff of any of the counties within this State, bonâ fide, and for a valuable consideration, of any lands, tenements or hereditaments whatsoever, where quiet and peaceable possession hath been had of the same for the space of six years, shall be adjudged or taken to be defective, avoided, or prejudiced, for not producing in court, upon trial or otherwise, any writ of fieri facias, levari facias, or venditioni expona, or any returns thereupon, or for want of proof that due and legal notice of the sales of the same was given, or for not having been recorded in the office for recording of deeds.

Supplementary Act directing the Descent of Intestates' Real Estate, etc. SECTION 1. Supplied by Act relating to Orphans' Court of 1832. SECT. 2. In all cases where a return of nulla bona shall have been made by

the sheriff of the proper county, to an execution against any such executors or administrators, their sureties shall, on notice thereof, unless they can show goods or chattels, lands or tenements, in some other county, which may be seized and taken in execution by a testatum fieri facias, to satisfy the same, be liable to pay the amount of the debt and costs therein, in actions brought against them on the said bonds, and such further proof or evidence in support thereof, as by law would have entitled the suitor or suitors to recover his, her, or their demand of the said executors or administrators, de bonis propriis: Provided, Such suits shall be instituted against the sureties within seven years after the date of the respective bonds; and the whole amount of the sums of money to be recovered thereupon shall not exceed the penalties of the said bonds respectively.

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SECT. 4. Whereas, inconveniences may arise from the debts of deceased persons remaining a lien on their lands and tenements, an indefinite period of time after their decease, whereby bona fide purchasers may be injured, and titles become insecure: Be it enacted, That no such debts, except they [*lxxvii] *be secured by mortgage, judgment, recognizance, or other record, shall remain a lien on said lands and tenements longer than seven years after the decease of such debtor, unless an action for the recovery thereof be commenced and duly prosecuted against his or her heirs, executors or administrators, within the said period of seven years, or a copy or particular written statement of any bond, covenant, debt, or demand, where the same is not payable within the said period of seven years, shall be filed within the said period in the office of the prothonotary of the county where the lands lie: Provided, always, That a debt due and owing to a person, who, at the time of the decease of such debtor is a feme covert, in his or her minority, non compos mentis, in prison, or out of the limits of the United States, shall remain a lien on the said lands and tenements (notwithstanding the said term be expired), until four years after discoverture, or such person shall have arrived at the age of twenty-one years, be of sound mind, enlarged out of prison, or return into some one of the United States of America.

Judgment a Lien on Real Estate, and Suits against Sureties of Public Officers. Whereas, it is reasonable that persons entering into bonds or recognizances, as sureties for any public officers, should be exonerated from their responsibility within a reasonable term after such officers respectively shall die, resign, or be removed from office: Therefore, It shall not be lawful for any person or persons whomsoever, to commence and maintain any suit or suits on any bonds or recognizances, which shall hereafter be given and entered into by any person or persons, as sureties for any public officer, from and after the expiration of the term of seven years, to be computed from the time at which the cause of action shall have accrued; and if any such suit or suits shall be commenced, contrary to the intent and meaning of this act, the defendant or defendants, respectively, shall and may plead the general issue, and give this act, and the special matter in evidence; and if the plaintiff or plaintiffs be nonsuit, or if a verdict or judgment pass against him or them respectively, the defendant or defendants shall respectively recover double costs.