Whitney v. Fox

Citations

• 166 U.S. 637
• 17 S. Ct. 713
• 41 L. Ed. 1145
• 1897 U.S. LEXIS 2055

Syllabus

<p>It is the ordinary rule to accept the interpretation given to a statute by the courts of the country by which it was originally adopted; but the rule is not an absolute one to be followed under all circumstances. In this case the court accepts the construction given by the Supreme Court of the Territory of Utah to a statute of that Territory disqualifying certain persons as witnesses, rather than the construction placed upon a like statute by the Supreme Court of California, although the Utah statute was apparently taken from the statute of California.</p> <p>Equity will sometimes refuse relief where a shorter time than that prescribed by the statute of limitations has elapsed without suit. It ought always to do so where, as in this case, the delay in the assertion of rights is not adequately explained, and such circumstances have intervened in the condition of the adverse party as to render it unjust to him or to his estate that a court of equity should assist the plaintiff. In this case the plaintiff, seeking the aid of equity, forbore for an unreasonably long time to assert his rights, and made no demand upon his adversary until disease had so far deprived the latter of his reason and faculties that he could not comprehend any matter of business submitted to him. His right to ask the aid of a court of equity was held to have been lost under the. peculiar circumstances of the case.</p>