Bates v. Cullum

Citations

• 177 Pa. 633
• 35 A. 861
• 1896 Pa. LEXIS 1025

Syllabus

<p>Statute of limitations — Act of May 22,1895 — Retrospective act — Constitutional laiv.</p> <p>Tue act of May 22, 1895, P. L. 112, which declares: “That in all civil suits and actions in which the cause of action shall have arisen within this state the defendant or defendants in such suit or action, who shall have become nonresident of the state after such cause of action shall have arisen, shall not have the benefit of any statute of this state for the limitation of actions during the period of such residence without the state,” is constitutional and retrospective in its effect.</p> <p>Where the court opened a judgment in order to permit the defendant to plead the bar of the statute of limitations, and the issue was pending and undetermined when the act of May 22, 1895, went into operation, the plaintiff may introduce evidence to show that the defendant became a nonresident of the state after the cause of action had arisen.</p>