84 Wis. 93 | Wis. | 1893
At common law, when a sole plaintiff or sole defendant in a personal action died, the action abated and could not be revived, but all such personal actions as were founded upon any obligation, contract, covenant, debt, or duty to be performed, survived, and did not die with the person, but a new action might be brought by or against the personal representatives of the deceased plaintiff or defendant. 2 Archb. Pr. 876; Hambly v. Trott, 1 Cowp. 372, 373; Holsman v. St. John, 90 N. Y. 461, 462. Under the rule of the common law, this action would have abated by the death of the defendant Scott, and although his liability on the contract or indebtedness, if any, survived against his personal representative, to the extent she received assets, yet all claim against her in such new action would probably have been barred by the statute of limitations. The statute changed the common-law rule by providing that “ an action does not abate by the occurrence of any event, if the cause of action survives or continues; ” and, “ in case of the death or other disability of a party, . . . the court, on motion, at any time within one year thereafter, or afterwards, on a supplemental complaint, may allow or compel the action to be continued by or against his personal representatives or successor in interest.” E. S. secs. 2800, 2803. The action, therefore, while it did not abate by the death of the defendant, Scott, became defect
We think, in view of the condition of the law before the statute, and its manifestly discretionary terms, the case of Lyon v. Park, 111 N. Y. 350, is a wise and correct exposition of the law; and that an application to revive and continue an action must be decided upon all the facts and circumstances of the case, whether occurring before or after the death of the party, with a view to the ends of substantial justice; and that a party may not, by paying no attention to the prosecution of his action, wait until the opposite party and his witnesses are dead, and the instruments and means of proof to contest his claim are destroyed, and then ask the court to permit him to revive and prosecute his action, and to reap the fruits of such an unconscientious and inequitable course of proceeding. In this case, as in Lyon v. Park, supra, it was urged that the opposite party had been guilty of laches, and might have forced the case to a trial in his lifetime; but, as said in that case, “the primary duty to move to continue the action was on the plaintiff.” Resides, he must maintain his right to continue the action by excusing his laches, and by proof on his part of good faith and diligence in the prosecution of his action,
It is plain that the right of defense of the personal representative of the deceased defendant will be greatly endangered, if not wholly lost, should the action be now revived and continued. The defendant was a material witness, without whose testimony it is probable his defense cannot be made out. The papers, pay rolls, and vouchers put in evidence before the referee have been destroyed, and witnesses have become widely scattered, or have died, and1 the dust of time and forgetfulness has settled over the transaction in question, and the plaintiff, through his gross and inexcusable neglect, has lost all right to agitate his
By the Court. — - The order of the circuit court is affirmed.