Huffman v. Callison

Citations

• 6 W. Va. 301

Syllabus

<p>Syllabus.</p> <p>1. A special plea reciting that the consideration of a hond is Confederate Treasury notes issued by an illegal association to overthrow the Government of the United-States, and for no other consideration whatever, presents an immaterial issue, and is rightly rejected.</p> <p>2. A special replication to the plea of the statute of limitations which does not allege the exact period of the war, or exactly how long the courts were closed, when these facts arc relied upon as an avoidance, is had, for that period only could be excepted from the computation of time which might otherwise prove a bar: for it should appear upon the face of the pleading that, after taking- out the excepted time, five years have not elapsed since the action accrued. The replication by not stating the period, hut leaving- it wholly in blank, does not present a certain issue.</p> <p>3. To an action brought upon a bond or promissory noto after the present Code of West Virginia went into operation on the 1st day April 1869, the 6th section of Chapter 104 applies; and consequently a special replication to the plea of the statute of limitations, that said statute was suspended in any county during the whole of the late war between the so-called Confederate States and the United States, presents an immaterial issue, and should be rejected.</p> <p>4. Where the statute of limitations has been pleaded, the Court erred in refusing to give the following instruction: “If the jury believe from the evidence that more than five years elapsed fi'om the day the note sued on fell due and become payable, until the institution of this suit, then it is barred by the statute of limitations.”</p>