McDonald v. Hovey

Citations

• 110 U.S. 619
• 4 S. Ct. 142
• 28 L. Ed. 269
• 1884 U.S. LEXIS 1723

Syllabus

<p>Limitations, Statute of — Statutes, Construction of.</p> <p>The construction usually given'to statutes oí limitations, that a disability mentioned in the act must exist at the time the action accrues in order to prevent the statute from running, and that after it has once commenced to run no subsequent disability will interrupt it, is to be given to Bev. Stat. § 1008, prescribing the time within which writs of error shall be brought or appeals taken to review in this court judgments, decrees or orders of a Circuit or District Court in any civil action at law or in equity.</p> <p>Where English statutes, such as the Statute of Frauds and the Statute of Limitations, have been adopted into our own legislation, the known and settled construction of those statutes by courts of law has been considered as silently incorporated into the acts, or has been received with all the weight of authority.</p> <p>Upon a revision of statutes ti different interpretation is not to he given to them without some substantial change of phraseology other than what may have been necessary to abbreviate the form of the law. - Pewnoch v. Dialogue, 2 Pet. 1, cited and approved.</p> <p>The English and American cases construing statutes of limitations as affected by disability provisos reviewed.</p>