85 Miss. 322 | Miss. | 1904
delivered the opinion of the court.
The provision of sec. 97 of the constitution of 1890 in respect to reviving a remedy relates alone either to an express statute of limitation of this state or to a lapse of time dealt with, under the statute or under the general law, as a limitation of time. The phrase “lapse of time,” as here used, must be interpreted to mean — on the maxim, “Noscitur a sociis” — a period of time limiting the action. The statute providing that no action could be maintained on any contract in a business where the privilege license had not been paid does not provide any statute of limitation within which the remedy must be pursued. It sets up an absolute bar, while it exists, to the right of recovery at all. It is a bar to recovery which the state has interposed between itself and a delinquent taxpayer, effectual without reference to the time, so long as the statute is unmodified. In other words, the provision of sec. 97 of the constitution relates wholly to a limitation of time in which suits may be brought,
There is no merit in any of the other contentions.
Affirmed.