26 Me. 162 | Me. | 1846
The opinion of the Court was drawn up by
— By the statute of 1836, -c. 200, § 3, it was provided, that any judgment creditor of any corporation, thereafter established, other than those of Banks, and those in regard to which it should not be otherwise provided, who should not, upon due proceedings, have been able to obtain satisfaction against the same, might have a remedy therefor, by an action of the case, against any stockholder therein, to the amount of his stock ; and, by $ 4, it was provided, that forty-eight hours previous notice should be given to any stockholder, intended to be charged, to produce corporate property, prior to the commencement of any such action against him. It appears that all the preliminary steps required by the statute cited, to entitle the plaintiff to recover had been taken.
But it is contended, in the first place, that the case stated
It is, however, further insisted, that the act “ repealing all the acts, which are consolidated in the Revised Statutes,” repealed the act of 1836; and the Revised Statutes, c. 76, having provided, that the right of action against stockholders should be confined to those who were such, at the time the debt was originally contracted, that the defendant is not liable; and it is agreed that he was not then a stockholder. To this it is replied, nevertheless, that the repealing act above cited, saves £:to all persons, all rights of action in virtue of any act repealedand “ all actions and causes of action, which shall have accrued in virtue of, or founded on any of said repealed acts.”
We are, therefore, called upon to decide whether this was a right of action, “ in virtue of any act repealedor an action or cause of action, which had accrued “ in virtue of, or was founded on any of said repealed acts.” These saving clauses must have had reference to rights and causes of action, which then, to wit, in 1841, when the repealing act was passed, had accrued. Rights and causes of action could not accrue subsequently, by virtue of, or be founded on a repealed statute. Before the repealing act took effect the plaintiffs