48 Vt. 58 | Vt. | 1874
The opinion of the court was delivered by
The only exception relied on is to the ruling of the court, that upon the special finding of the jury the plaintiff could not recover, as the verbal contract claimed by tho plaintiff came within the Statute of Frauds, and thereupon rendering judgment for the defendant; the defendant’s counsel claiming that tho contract was not within the Statute of Frauds.
The verbal promise relied on by the plaintiff clearly comes within the letter of the provision of the statute that “ no action at law or in equity shall be brought, * * * to charge any person upon any special promise to answer for the debt, default, or misdoings of another,” unless such promise, or some memorandum or note thereof, shall be in writing, and signed by the party to be charged therewith, or by some person thereunto by him lawfully authorized. The demand which the plaintiff had was not the' debt of the defendant, but the debt of another. It accrued in the lifetime of her husband, and solely against her husband, and so continued up to and at his decease, which event cast no liability upon the defendant on account of it. It still remained a debt against the estate of the deceased, with no means or remody for its collection, except upon such of the property of tho decedent as the law would appropriate to its payment. But the case shows that there was no property of the estate applicable to the payment of debts of the estate. Tho real estate consisted of a homestead that the Probate Court and the jury found to be of less