Priestly v. Watkins

Citations

• 62 Miss. 798

Syllabus

<p>Registration. County bonds. Conditions. Statute of limitations. Unconstitutional statutory proviiions.</p> <p>Where an act of the legislature requires that the holders of all outstanding bonds of a specified county shall present the same for registration by the clerk of the board of supervisors within a prescribed time, and shall simultaneously file an affidavit “ stating the number of each bond, the date of its issuance, the amount thereof, and the names of the different persons through whom the holder derives his title,” and provides that, “ unless such affidavit is filed the said clerk shall not register the same, and payment of all interest or principal thereof shall be stopped,” such act is, as to valid bonds of the county, payable to bearer and not due, unconstitutional and void, because it violates, in two particulars, that provision in the State and Federal constitutions, respectively, which protects from impairment the obligations of contracts, viz.: (1) in creating a statute of limitations against bonds not due and upon which no cause of action has arisen, and (2) in requiring an affidavit showing the holder’s ch'ain of title to bonds payable to bearer, thus engrafting conditions and imposing burdens upon the contract not contained in it nor contemplated by the parties to it.</p>