Bradford v. Shine

Citations

• 13 Fla. 393

Syllabus

<p>1. The Legislature may repeal a statute limiting the time for commencing civil actions, and thus deprive a party of the right to plead the statute as a defence.</p> <p>2. The law provides that all debts and demands against the estate of any testator or intestate, which shall not be exhibited within two years after notice given to that effect by the executor or administrator, shall forever afterward be barred: Held, that the repealof this statute, after the expiration of the time so limited, does not revive the right to prosecute the claim, nor deprive the representative of a deceased person of his right to plead the bar, the right of action being extinguished in such case.</p> <p>■3. The Constitutional Convention of 1865 ordained, and the ordinance was incorporated in the constitution, “ that no law of this State providing that claims or demands against the estates of decedents shall he barred if not presented within two years, shall be considered as in force within this State between the 10th January, 1861, and the 25th October, 1865Held, that the contention of 1865 was called for the purpose of amending the constitution of the State to conform to the then existing political condition of the country, and not for purposes of general or special legislation, and that the provisions of such an ordinance could have no legal force.</p> <p>A The statute of December 13th, 1861, suspended the statute of limitations then in force 11 in relation to civil actionsHeld, that this suspension applied only to civil actions, according to the ordinary legal and popular signification and understanding of the terms, and did not apply to the presentation of claims against the estates of deceased persons.</p>