29 Md. 406 | Md. | 1868
delivered the opinion of the court.
This case, by consent of parties, was submitted to the court and tried without the intervention of a jury; and before judgment entered a bill of exceptions was taken. The practice of the appellate court in such cases, as settled by Tinges v. Moal, 25 Md. 480, is that this court will not examine the facts in evidence, with a view to adjudge whether the finding of the court as to them was correct, and in this respect no appeal lies or will be entertained; but if a question of law is raised, and that appears from the record, it must be examined and decided, and in doing so, this court can look to the character of the facts only so far as may necessary or proper to understand or apply the law in question. The judge below delivered an opinion, stating his conclusions upon the facts and the law applicable thereto, and upon this appeal we must assume it was established by proof that the promissory note sued on was proved and had never been paid; that the plaintiff, before the war, and before its maturity, parted with the note, for value, to a bona ñde holder, at whose instance it was protested at maturity, and who remained its owner during the war; that after the war was over, the plaintiff became again the holder and owner of the note for value, and that subsequently, in December, 1866, whilst the plaintiff was such owner and holder, the defendant acknowledged the debt and promised to pay it.
The third objection that the finding of the court, in favor of the plaintiff, is in contravention of the provisions of the Act of Congress of 1862, ch. 195, making liable to seizure and confiscation the property and credits of persons therein referred to, -is also untenable. The plaintiff was not the holder or owner of the note, or in any way interested in it, ^during the war. He had parted with it for value, before maturity, before the war commenced, and long before this law was passed. He acquired a new title to, and ownership of it after the war had ceased, and certainly there is nothing in this Act of Congress that, by any latitude of construction, can be held as intending
The fact that the plaintiff was not the owner or holder of the note during the war is also fatal to the fourth and last objection, that he was not entitled to recover interest upon it pending the war. The note at maturity was in the possession of the Merchants’ Bank of Baltimore, the holder and owner for value, as we must assume (Goodman v. Simonds, 20 How. 365,) at whose instance it was protested and in whose possession it remained until the close of the war. The defendant was a citizen of Maryland residing in Baltimore during the war, and is, under these circumstances, as much liable to the plaintiff for interest on this note as he would have been to any other purchaser thereof.
Judgment affirmed.