26 Vt. 100 | Vt. | 1853
The opinion of the court was delivered by
We think the defendants are not chargeable for the interest, for which this suit is brought. A claim for interest must rest on one of two grounds; either upon a contract express or implied, or as damages for some •wrongful act or default in the payment of that which is due another. The liability to pay interest as damages, rests upon a principle distinct from the liability to pay interest as a compensation for the use of money. 1 Am. Lead. Cases 496, (note.)'
There is no pretence in this case, that the defendants are liable for this interest on any contract, nor from the consideration that they have derived any benefit from the use of the money.
The principal, on which interest is demanded, arose from an as
It appears from the case, that an order for the payment of this money to the plaintiff was made by the chancellor on the 20th of July, 1850. If no appeal had been allowed, and a legal demand had been made, the defendants would have been chargeable with interest, on their neglect or refusal to pay the money as directed by the chancellor. The Vt. Central Railroad Co. however, who were one of the parties to that proceeding, requested and were allowed by the chancellor an appeal from that order and decree, to the next term of the Supreme Court, and in pursuance of that appeal, the case was duly entered upon the calendar of that court. Haswell v. Vt. Central Railroad Co., 23 Vt. 228.
The order and decree of the chancellor was not probably vacated by that appeal, as it was improperly allowed, and was properly dismissed by the Supreme Court; yet during the pendency of that appeal and while the parties to that proceeding were contesting their rights, and the propriety of that order of the chancellor, it should be considered and treated as a suspension of that order until the appeal was finally disposed of. It will afford a reasonable excuse for the defendants in not paying over the money, as no decree had been made by the chancellor, which he himself treated as a final order in the case. It fully appears, that the defendants were at all times ready to pay the money to any one, when they could do it with safety to themselves. It so appears, at the time when they were called upon by Mr. Smalley, and from the
The judgment of the County Court is reversed, and the case remanded.