Our acts of 1810 and 1836, introducing, and extending the remedy by compulsory arbitration, were intended to supply a system of costs, in cases of appeals from awards of arbitrators, and operated as a repeal.of the statute of Gloucester, wherever their provisions were applicable.
But the right to recover, or the liability to pay costs, was made to depend on the form of the recognisance, which the party appealing from an award was required to acknowledge. The prescribed conditions of these securities were intended to be' commensurate with the whole amount of costs the adverse party could recover, under the events contemplated by the condition. This was, however, found to be of limited effect; and, therefore, where the terms of the condition failed of application to the circumstances of the particular case, it was left to be governed by the law, as this stood prior to the enactment of the arbitration acts. But, under the events provided for, it worked, by necessary implication, an exoneration from payment of costs, where its condition remained unforfeited by the facts occurring subsequent to the' appeal. Such is the doctrine of Landis v. Schaffer, 4 S. & R. 196, Poke v. Kelly, 13 S. & R. 165, and other kindred cases, by which it was settled, that, where the recognisance stipulated the payment of costs in a particular event, the appellant was not bound to pay costs, if that
These authorities, and others that might be added, very clearly show that the rights and liabilities of litigants, as to costs, were, under the acts of 1810 and 1836, altogether dependent on the conditions of the recognisances prescribed by the statutes, when these were shaped to meet existing facts; but if inapplicable, or otherwise inoperative, there was casus omissus, and the parties were necessarily thrown back upon the general law of costs as the arbiter between them. Such was the settled rule when, in 1842, the law abolishing imprisonment for debt was passed. One effect of the law was to strike from our system the recognisance of special bail, as inconsistent with the leading design of the abolishing act, and, consequently, it operated to repeal that portion of the act of 1836 which stipulated for such recognisances on appeals from awards. It was, accordingly, determined in Beers v. The West Branch Bank, 7 W. & S. 365, that such appeals were good without bail or recognisance of any kind.. Shortly after, it was decided in Merrit v. Smith, 2 Barr, 161, that the act of the 20th of March, 1845, did not interfere with that provision of the act of 1836, requiring payment, on appeal, of all costs due in the action, up to that time. The latter statute provides that, in lieu of the bail theretofore required, on appeals from the judgments of justices and awards of arbitrators, the bail shall be absolute in double the probable amount of the costs, accrued or likely to accrue, with one or more sureties, “ conditioned for the payment of all costs accrued or that' may be legally recovered in such cases against the appellants.” The effect of this enactment, as was held in Shuff v. Morgan, 7 Barr, 125, is to supersede those sections of the act of 1836, which prescribed the form of recognisances on appeal, and a recognisance taken under the earlier statute was, therefore, declared void,
What has been said shows the present plaintiff is entitled to recover the legal costs of his action. The Court of Common Pleas having refused to permit this, fell into error.
Judgment reversed, and it is ordered that judgment be entered for the plaintiff upon the verdict, with full costs.
