36 F. 885 | U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Eastern Missouri | 1888
Plaintiff brings suit on six bonds, executed by Macon county. They bear date January 1,1870, and matured January 1,1882. In the body of the bond it is recited that the county will pay interest “at ten per cent, per annum, which interest shall be payable semi-annually, on the presentation of the coupons hereto annexed.” All of the coupons originally attached to the bonds have been detached, except those which matured on and after July 1, 1878. In the first count of the petition plaintiff demands judgment for the principal sum due on the six bonds, and also interest thereon at 10 per cent, per annum, from January 1, 1870, to January 1, 1878, and from January 1, 1882, to the date of rendition of judgment. The coupons that matured after January 1, 1878,- and up to the maturity of the bonds, are sued on in the second count of the petition. This suit -was filed on April 20, 1888. It will be observed, therefore, that all the coupons on the bonds in question which matured on and prior to January 1, 1878, were more than 10 years overdue when the said suit was filed, and for that reason an action on the coupons is barred by limitation. By suing on the bonds, and demanding judgment for the principal sum, together with all interest that accrued thereon up to January 1, 1878, the plaintiff seeks to avoid a plea of the statute of limitations, which could have been successfully interposed if he had declared on the coupons. Huey v. Macon Co., 35 Fed. Rep. 481, and cases cited.
The point to be determined is whether such overdue interest can be recovered by declaring for it in a suit on the bonds, notwithstanding the fact that it could not be recovered by a suit on the coupons? The point is novel, and, so far as I am advised, has never been expressly determined. In several well-considered cases it has been held that, when money due on a note or bond, is made payable by installments, the statute of limitations begins to run against each installment from the time it matures. Bush v Stowell, 71 Pa. St. 208; Burnham v. Brown, 23 Me. 400; Estabrook v. Moulton, 9 Mass. 258; Heywood v. Perrin, 10 Pick. 228. But Mr. Wood in his work on “Limitation of Actions” says that, “with singular inconsistency” it has been held in some cases that interest made payable annually is not subject to the same rule; that the statute does not run against interest installments payable annually, until the principal debt matures. Wood, Lim. § 126, p. 296. In my opinion, there is no distinction in principle between a debt payable by installments and interest payable annually or semi-annually in installments. If the statute begins to run in the former case as soon as an installment of the debt matures, for equally good reasons it ought to run against interest installments as goon as they become payable. It is -worthy of note that the few cases cited by Mr. Wood as holding that the statute of limitations will not run against interest installments until the principal matures, were suits upon notes or bonds to which no interest coupons were attached. Separate.contracts to pay installments of interest at stated intervals were not annexed to the obligation to pay the debt. Vide Bank v. Doe, 19 Vt. 463; Henderson v. Hamilton, 1 Hall, 314; Ferry v. Ferry, 2 Cush. 92. The rulings made in the cases last mentioned appear to have