10 Tenn. 260 | Tenn. | 1829
On the 25th March, 1822, there issued from the office of the circuit court of Lincoln count), a capias ad respondendum, at the suit of John Waddel, against the Fayetteville Tennessee Bank, to answer the plaintiff in a plea of trespass on the case, to his damage $3,000. The sheriff made the following return thereon: “executed, having summoned .Vance Greer as President, and William Dickson as Cashier of said bank.”
The suit was instituted to recover the amount due upon a number of notes issued by the said bank. The declaration was in common form, with the usual averment, that the same had been presented for payment, and payment refused. The bank appeared to the action and pleaded non assumpsit; on which plea issue was joined.
At March term, L823, a jiry passed upon the issue, and rendered a verdict m favor of the plaintiff, for $1GG3; and (he court thereon gave judgment. Upon this judgment an cx.'cul.on issued returnable to the subsequent term of said court; on which the sheriff returned, “no property found in my county to satisfy this execution.” The record then recites, that when the capias ad
On the above proceedings, judgment was rendered against the said Yanzant, for $>1,125. He prosecuted an appeal in the nature of a writ of error to the supreme court, where the judgment was reversed, and the cause remanded with these special directions: that a jury should be empannelled to ascertain the specie value of the notes of the said bank, at the time Vanzant’s note became due; also, if said note was made, payable in said notes, with a view to defraud the note holders or creditors of said bank; and likewise to inquire if the settlement of the said Vanzant with the bank, was madebona fide, with a view to secure a debt due by said Yanzant to the bank; and on such finding, to give judgment. On these issues, the jury found; 1st, that the notes of said bank, at the time Vanzant’s note became due, were worth 25 cents in the dollar, in specie; 2d, that the note given as above mentioned by Yanzant, was a fraud against the note holders and creditors of the bank; and 3d, that the settlement made by said Yanzant, was not done to secure the bank, neither was it done bona fide. On this finding, on motion, the court gave judgment for $1125, against Yanzant, from which he prosecuted a writ of error to this court.
There is a bill of exceptions to the admission of testimony, which not being seriously insisted on in argument, is not necessary to be noticed.
The legislature passed an act on the 15th of Nov. 1821, entitled, an act prescribing the mode by which the holders of the notes of the Farmers’ and. Mechanics’ Bank, at Nashville, and the Fayetteville Tennessee Bank, may, on their refusal to pay the same, recover judgment. This act, it is said, has given rise to the proceedings in this case against Vanzant. And it is insis
The act provides, in substance, that when payment of the notes of said bank has been refused, if under ‡ 100, warrants may issue from under the hand of some justice of the peace, against such bank, and after the demand and refusal to pay at said bank, judgment may be entered up, and execution may be issued as in other cases. That if the execution cannot be satisfied out of funds of the institution, then the officer having such execution, may summon persons supposed to be indebted to said bank, who shall on oath, declare what they owe said bank, &c. The act further provides, that when a writ issues and is served upon the officers of such bank, the party may have his election, either on original or mesne process, to summon persons as garnishees to answer on oath, what they are indebted to said bank, &c. and on the return of such summons with the writ, and after examination of such garnishee, “if he shall declare that he is indebted to such bank in notes of said bank or banks, then the court may empannel a jury to ascertain the value of such notes, and to inquire if the note so taken and made payable in the notes of such bank, was done with a view to defraud the note holders of such bank. If done with such view, the court to give judgment for the amount specified in such note; if otherwise, for such value of the notes of said bank, as may be found by the jury.”
No new process is given by this act, unless it be that of a summon for a garnishee at the time of serving the original writ, or capias ad respondendum. Was it competent for the Legislature, consistent with the constitution of the state of Tennessee, to give this summons as a cumulative remedy to those other remedies which existed at the time the law passed? To admit the principle that such a law cannot be passed by the Legislature, would be
The counsel who argued so strenuously that the provisions contained in the charter of the bank are encroached upon by the act of 1821, and that the act in question is an edict upon certain individuals, seem to forget that the bank, and all called upon to answer under said act, have their day in court allowed them; that they have a right to he heard in defence; and that no one shall be held liable for the debt demanded, until a jury has passed upon it.
Before I quit this branch of the case, it is proper to remark, that a distinction must be drawn between those acts of the Legislature, which come in aid of a remedy and such acts as impose clogs and restrictions upon remedies existing at the time the contract was made. Had the Legislature said that the bank should not have process for the collection of her debts, or that the courts should not be open to the complaints of the bank, the case would be wholly different from this, where all that is attempted is to provide for such defects in the existing remedies as the bank had laid hold of, to evade the payment of her notes.
In answer to the objection, that the act of 1821 is unequal and oppressive, it is only necessary to say, that by a summons served upon a garnishee, the bank is placed in no worse situation than a private individual whose debtor has been garnisheed. The bank, it is true, cannot collect such debt as may be suspended by the garnish
The next objection will now be considered. It is said’ that this is a private and not a public act, and that it not appearing upon the record, cannot be noticed.
The two banks spoken of are both public institutions of the country. Their charters are public laws. This act of 1821, is made in relation to two public institutions of the state. It is an act for the benefit of all such as have had dealings with the paper of such public institutions. Who it may be asked,have had any dealings with, or have held the paper of these banks? I answer, every man in the community; for, where it is possible from the nature of the thing transacted, that one man as well as another has participated in that which is lawful, it is as fair to infer, that all have, as that it was confined to but few. The charter of these banks contemplated a general circulation of their notes; and we are authorized to presume from the record before us, that the circulation had been general and extensive, inasmuch as the capital stock of these banks amounted' to about $>600,000, and that notes to double that amount could be issued. And are we to pre. sume, that the banks have issued less than the amount authorized by the charter, when we find the affairs of the institutions so embarrassed that the small sum demanded in this action could not be paid by one of them?
An act of assembly providing a remedy for the collection of debts, or an act for the relief of securities, would be public acts, not because every man in the community was a debtor or security, but because every man by possibility might be such, or have something to do with such persons. While the act in question relates to these banks on the one side, it relates to all the community on the other, and is not tobe considered a private act, because of the importance or unimportance of the institutions.
In short, these banks being corporations, which all manner of persons might have some transaction with or demand against, it follows, that the act was made for all persons, and is therefore a general law. See Mr. Chitty’s note, I Blac. Com. 86.
I will now briefly notice two authorities introduced and mainly relied upon by the plaintiff in error.
The first is the case of Dartmouth College vs. Woodward, (4 Wheaton’s Rep. 518.
• The questions in that case were certainly not like the present. Dartmouth College was, by charter, founded in New Hampshire, in 1769, before the revolution. It was a charitable institution; had visiters, and perpetuity under its charter. While in operation, and carrying into effect the objects of the founder, the Legislature, without the consent of the corporation, passed a law altering in material respects the terms of the charter. This law was held to be unconstitutional, because it impaired the obligation of the contract, (the charter being considered a contract.)
How is it possible to make the present case fall within the principle of that case?' I can See no possible analogy; but as it seems to me, that case is an authority which, to some extent, may be applied in aid of our present argument.
All the power contended for in this case is conceded in that one, to wit: that it does not violate the charter while in operation, to change the remedy against it, so long as the right of trial by jury remains inviolate.
The other case is cited from 11 Mas. Rep. 396. The only question in the case was, whether when a demand had been barred under an existing law of the Legislature, it was competent for the Legislature to declare, that the act as to that case, should be suspended,and the party denied a privilege which had already accrued to him. It is only necessary to say, that the case is wholy different from the one before the court. That was an act marking, as it were, its victim. It operated between A and B, and the court could not be indifferent to so unequal a conflict. There the Legislature judicially took side with one of the parties. The law went to the merits of a case, and attempted judicially to settle, perhaps, the only point in it. Not so under the act we are considering; no point is settled by the act, so far as we are called upon to view it; but the mode alone by which the party is called into court, that all points may be settled, is complained of. When questions may arise upon other parts of the law in question, they will be decided; it is enough to say at present, that it is not an infringement of the constitution to come in aid of a remedy, and that a contract is not impaired by a law which is made to enforce it: for we are as well to consider the contract the plain
A law which is partial in its operation, intended to af-feet particular individuals alone, or to deprive them of the benefit of the general laws, is unwarranted by the constitution, and is void; but that this is such a law, is in my judgment, wholly a mistake. I am therefore of opinion that the judgment ought to be affirmed.
The act of 1821, ch. 197, provides how the creditors of the Fayetteville, and Farmers’ and Mechanics’ Banks, may recover their debts. The first eight sections apply to proceedings before Justices of the Peace. The 9th section authorizes any one indebted to the Bank to be summond as a garnishee before a court of record, to be proceeded against as on final processpn other cases. The garnishee may be summoned, either at the time the original writ issues, or upon the execution against the Bank. In either case, the examination is to be taken at the return of the writ, upon which he was summoned; yet judgment cannot be rendered against the garnishee, at a different time, or in any other manner, than in an ordinary case, by the act of 1811, ch. 89; that is, after judgment and execution against the Bank, and this returned, “no property found.” This course was 'strictly pursued in the present instance, and differs in nothing from a proceeding under the act of 1811, save that the summons issued was served, and the garnishee answered, before final judgment against the Bank.
The question presented by the record is, has the Legislature power to direct the mode by which members of a particular corporate body, may be notified to appear before the ordinary tribunals of the country, to be proceeded against according to the public and general laws of the land?
That a partial law, tending directly or indirectly to deprive a corporation or an individual of rights to property, or to the equal benefits of the general and public laws of the land, is unconstitutional and void, we do not
The right to life, liberty and property, of every individual, must stand or fall by the same rule [or law that governs every other member of the body politic, or “lane,” under similar circumstances; and every partial or private law, which directly proposes to destroy or affect individual rights, or does the same thing by affording remedies leading to-similar consequences, is unconstitutional and void. Were this otherwise, odious individuals and corporate bodies, would be governed by one rule, and the mass of the community who made the law, by another. The idea of a people through their representatives, making laws whereby arc swept away the life, liberty
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A general and public law prescribing remedies and modes of redress to enforce existing liabilities, can certainly be constitutionally passed. (4 Munf. R. 109. 4 Whea. R. 200, 207.
Can the same be done by a partial or private law? This can as certainly not be done, if the measure of justice to be administered, is not according to the public laws of the land. Yet, nothing can be seen in the present record, which did, or by possibility could, impair the right of the defendant, or deprive him of the power to defend the action, otherwise than as such rights were governed by the general laws of the land previous to the passage of the act of 1821. Nor can it be seen that any constitutional prohibition stood in the way of the Legislature, to prescribe the time when the notice should be given and examination taken. The contract was enforced in point of fact, under the act of 1811, and the mere time of the defendant’s appearance conformably to the notice, did not deprive him of the full benefit of the general laws of the country in resisting the claim. .
Judgment affirmed.