50 Ala. 245 | Ala. | 1874
It is not necessary, in the present condition of this suit, to go into any very minute statement of the facts set out in the bill and answers. There is no serious collision in these statements, except upon the allegations charging fraud, which it is not my purpose at present to consider. Taking the undisputed facts set out in the pleadings, did the chancellor err in his decree in the court below, from which this appeal is taken ?
This is a suit in chancery. That jurisdiction seeks to enforce the law, but only in such a manner as shall result in the most strict justice to all the parties on both sides, under the law governing their rights. As no law is intended to ultimate in wrong to the citizen, who is also the sovereign, the chancellor sits in a court of equity to dispense the power of the sovereign, to correct the unintended injurious operation of the law, which the sovereign himself would have prevented had it been foreseen. Adams’s Eq. Intro, p. xxiii.; 2 Bac. Abr. (Bouv.) p. 684 c; 1 Woodd. Lect. VII. pp. 114,115, marg.; 1 Story’s Eq. ch. 2, § 89, et ubique. This great light in this important jurisdiction may sometimes enable us to do right, which is the law of laws, and what the sovereign authority always must intend.
[The Chief Justice here stated the facts as given above.]
The Code did not permit the estates of persons under guardianship to be exchanged into such a currency, without the assent of the ward, given when he was capable of such assent. Then the act of the rebel government purporting to have been approved on November 9, 1861, did not repeal the Code, nor confer authority on Moody to convert the moneys or property of Sims into Confederate treasury-notes. Pamph. Acts 1861, pp. 53, 54. This was an attempt to repeal the Code, which cannot be sustained. 7 Wall. 700, 732. Under the Code, the guardian’s powers are carefully defined ; and he cannot go beyond these powers, without a proper order of a proper court. If he does, it is at his own risk, and the loss must fall upon his own head. Rev. Code, § 2426; Hall v. Hall, 43 Ala. 488, and cases there cited.
After the guardian had committed a waste, or conversion of the ward’s estate, under the law as it then existed in the Code, the general assembly, by a subsequent enactment, could not release the guardian from the liability thus incurred, without the consent of the ward, given in some legal manner. Such an act would be void as to past transactions, in which the right of the ward had become vested. The power of the legislature is to protect vested rights, not to impair or destroy them. The remedies to enforce such liabilities may be controlled by statutes of limitations, passed for the public repose. Interest reipublicœ ut sit finis litigium. Co. Litt. 303. But the right to life, liberty, and property is sacred, and it cannot be invaded by the legislative power. Decl. of Independence ; Cooley’s Const. Limit, p. 351 et seq. ; Sedgwick on Stat. & Const. Law, p. 177 et seq. So far as the act of the general assembly of this State, entitled “ An act for the relief of executors, administrators, guardians, and trustees,” approved February 23, 1866, has the effect to sanction unauthorized conversions of the estates of deceased persons, minors, and beneficiaries, into Confederate currency, whether issued by the State or the Confederate States government, so called, it is void. Pamph. Acts 1865-6, p. 714; Rev. Code, § 2135; Newman v. Reed, at the present term ; Sedgw. on Stat. & Const. Law, p. 177 ; Gunn v. Barry, 15 Wall. 610, 622. See, also, Head v. Talley, opinion by Chase, C. J., U. S. Cir. Court, Richmond, Va. 1870. Then the attempted payment to the administrator, May, in Confederate currency did not discharge Moody. He is still liable to account.
The judgment of the court below is in conformity with the principles of law above announced ; it is, therefore, affirmed at appellant’s costs.