35 Conn. 216 | Conn. | 1868
The plaintiff’s demand was for the sum of fifty dollars loaned to the defendant on a Sunday in the month of June, 1867; and the question in the case is, whether the plaintiff can recover for a sum of money loaned before the setting of the sun on the Lord’s day. And we are of opinion that he can not.
Our statute in relation to the keeping of the Lord’s day provides, among other things, “ that no person shall do any secular business, work or labor, works of necessity and mercy excepted, on the Lord’s day, between the rising of the sun and the setting of the same, under a penalty of not less than one nor more than four dollars.” Section 1st of the Act for the due observance of the Lord’s day; Gen. Statutes, p. 643. This, of course, renders the contract of loan on that day an illegal contract. And if a party claiming a right to recover a debt is obliged to trace his title or right to the debt through an illegal contract he can not recover, because he can not be allowed to prove the illegal contract as any foundation for his right of recovery. Ex turpi causa non oritur actio is a maxim which applies as well to contracts which are contrary to the policy of a statute, as to those which are admitted to be illegal in consequence of their immoral tendency. And a contract made on Sunday is opposed to the positive prohibition of our statute. No doubt it is true, as remarked by Lord Mansfield in the case of Holman v. Johnson, Cowper, 343, that “if
For these reasons we advise the Superior Court to render judgment for the defendant.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.