If any injuftice is done, application is made to the court by motion grounded on affidavit.

Lands are bound by the judgment, and as the leafe could not be difcharged by a defcent on the death of the ancestor, fo neither is there any law in being that declares the execution taken out by the ConuJee, in his life time void. In feventeen hundred and thirty-two an act paffed making executions good for twenty years, whoever lends money in the Weft-Indies, always takes out execution on his judgment in order to bind the chattels

* See a book entitled, "Remarks on several English acts of Parliament relating to the American colonies, and on divers acts of affembly there, &c." 8vo. 1742.

CHA P. X.

Late judicial Determinations in the Courts of the United-States, and in the Courts of Westminster-Hall, relating to the United States, &c. &c.

.

PHILADELPHIA.

THE

COMMON PLEAs, 1787.

Anon.

'HE queftion was, "Whether intereft fhould be allowed during the war on a bond due from a citizen of America to a

British fubje&t?" It was given in charge to the jury, by the chief juftice, that upon accounts which only carried intereft in time of peace, the circumftances of the war were fufficient to destroy the usage and intereft upon bonds and obligations bearing intereft, from the nature of the contract the intereft fhould ceafe from the invafion of the British,

and

and be revived at the date of figning the
preliminary articles.

A fimilar determination took place in Virgina, and this opinion determined many actions depending in these and other states upon the fame point.

In the fame court judgment was given Billof exchange in an action brought by the indorsee against the acceptor of a bill of exchange, in which the words "Or Order" were omitted, and in which after much inveftigation, the judges were of opinion that fuch bill was not negotiable, and confequently that the action could not be fupported.

Goodman ver. Januen.

SAME COURT,

N this cafe it was established as a princi- Witnefs.
ple that where there are fubfcribing wit-
neffes to a note of hand, it is neceffary, (as
in the case of a deed,) to produce them at
the trial, or to give fome fatisfactory reafon
for their abfence; but if there are no wit-
neffes, then proof of the parties hand-writ-
Y 2

ing,

ing, by an indifferent perfon, (capable of fuch proof) is fufficient.

This determination feems to deferve the attention of mercantile people, as the obtaining witnesses to promiffory notes has commonly been confidered a matter of useful precaution; but by this determination it may be productive of much difficulty and embarrassment,

Stoddard

IN

Stoddard ver. Penhallow.

veffels.

N feventeen hundred and feventy-feven Captured a veffel belonging to a citizen of Connecticut, bound from England to NovaScotia, was taken by a citizen of NewHampshire, and condemned in the Inferior Court of Admiralty as a legal prize. Upon an appeal to the Superior Court of Admiralty, for that ftate, the decree below was affirmed, but the cause being removed into the Court of Errors and Appeals for the United-States, the proceedings were reverfed, and a decree given in favour of the appellant. After this an action was brought in a common law court of Maffechusetts, to recover damages from the captors, but that court would not allow the decree of the Court of Error and Appeals for the United-States to be read in evidence, and the plaintiff was therefore obliged to difcontinue his action. The question was revived in Penfylvania upon an attachment which had been laid upon the property of the captors in this ftate. Defendant now moved to fet afide the attachment, upon the following objec tions.

I. That