such cause shall be tried, shall be satisfied that there was reasonable cause for making such person or persons defendant or defendants to such action, and shall order it otherwise.

SECT. 105. In all actions of trespass quare clausum fregit, wherein the defendant or defendants shall disclaim, in his or their plea, to make any title or claim to the land in which the trespass is by the declaration supposed to be done, and the trespass be by negligence, or involuntary, the defendant or defendants shall be admitted to plead a disclaimer, and that the trespass was by negligence or involuntary, and a tender, or offer of sufficient amends for such trespass before the action brought; whereupon, or upon some of them, the plaintiff or plaintiffs shall join issue; and if the said issue be found for the defendant or defendants, or the plaintiff or plaintiffs shall be nonsuited, the plaintiff or plaintiffs shall be clearly barred from the said action or actions, and all other suits concerning the

same.

SECT. 106. The limitation of six years, mentioned in the fourth section of the act, entitled "An act for the limitation of actions, and certain proceedings in civil cases, and for preventing frivolous and vexatious suits," passed June the seventh, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-one, be, and the same is hereby repealed; and that in lieu thereof, all actions enumerated in the said fourth section, except actions on promissory notes, shall be prosecuted in three years next after the cause of such action shall have accrued, and not after.

SECT. 107. The limitation of two years, mentioned in the eleventh section of the act, mentioned in the second section of this act, is hereby *re- [*cxii] pealed; and that in lieu thereof, all actions founded upon any account

for goods, wares, and merchandise, sold and delivered, or for any article charged in any store account, shall be commenced and prosecuted in three years, and not after.

SECT. 108. The second section of the act, to which this is an amendment, be and the same is hereby repealed; and the fourth section of the act, entitled "An act for the limitation of actions, and certain proceedings in civil cases, and for preventing frivolous and vexatious suits," passed June seventh, eighteen hundred and twenty-two, be and the same is hereby revived.

An Act explanatory of certain Statutes of Limitation.

SECT. 109. Whereas doubts have arisen as to the true intent and meaning of the second section of the eighty-fifth chapter of the acts passed in the year eighteen hundred and twenty-seven, and also of the second section of the eightyninth chapter of the acts passed in the year eighteen hundred and twenty-eight, the provisions of the said act of eighteen hundred and twenty-seven, having been erroneously construed, as operating a repeal of the statute of limitations of eighteen hundred and twenty-two, in the several actions enumerated in the fourth section of the twenty-first chapter of the revised code: And whereas the period of time barring the said several actions enumerated in the said fourth section of the twenty-first chapter of said code, was alone intended to be altered by the said act of eighteen hundred and twenty-seven, namely: from six to three years, excepting actions on promissory notes, as to which the provisions of

the said act. of eighteen hundred and twenty-two remained unchanged: And whereas the said act of eighteen hundred and twenty-seven was repealed, and the original provisions of the said fourth section of the twenty-first chapter of the said code, revised by the said act of eighteen hundred and twenty-eight:Therefore,

SECT. 110. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Mississippi, in General Assembly convened, That the said act of eighteen hundred and twenty-seven shall be so construed as not to repeal the act of limitations of eighteen hundred and twenty-two, in the several actions embraced in the fourth section of the twenty-first chapter of the revised code, but only as an alteration of the time required to bar said actions, and that the said act of eighteen hundred and twenty-seven shall not be so construed as to revive any cause of action which was barred under the said fourth section of the twentyfirst chapter of the said code, at the time of the passage of the said act of eighteen hundred and twenty-seven.

The said act of eighteen hundred and twenty-eight, repealing the said second section of the act of eighteen hundred and twenty-seven, and reviving the said fourth section of the twenty-first chapter of the revised code, shall not be so con

strued as to revive any cause of action barred or intended to be barred [*cxiii] under either of the said acts of eighteen hundred and twenty-two, or eighteen hundred and twenty-seven, at the time of the passage of the

said act of eighteen hundred and twenty-eight.

SECT. 111. All claims which, under and by virtue of the fourth section of the act, entitled, "An act for the limitation of actions, and certain proceedings in civil cases, and for preventing frivolous and vexatious suits," passed June seventh, eighteen hundred and twenty-two, were barred of recovery prior to the passage of an act, entitled, "An act to amend the forty-fifth section of the act entitled an act to reduce into one the several acts concerning the establishment, jurisdiction, and powers of the superior courts of law, and for other purposes," passed June twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and twenty-two, and which have been revived by the second section of the last recited act, passed eighteen hundred and twenty-seven, are hereby forever barred, unless suit be instituted for the recovery thereof, within twenty days after the passage of this

act.

The ninth section of the said act of eighteen hundred and twenty-two, shall be extended so as to include judgments recovered in any court of record, as well without as within this State.

LOUISIANA.

Possession and Personal Actions. (Abstract from Civil Code of Louisiana, from 4 Griffith's Annual Law Register, p. 686.)

Thirty years' possession prescribes land, though possessed without any title, or knavishly.

If possessed fairly and honestly and by just title, that is, one by virtue of which

property may be transferred, such as a sale or donation, though no real right may be thereby given, ten years' possession will be sufficient, if the true proprietor resides in the State, and twenty years in case he resides abroad.

Besides the thirty, twenty, and ten years' prescription with respect to lands, there is another of four years, which runs against the minor after coming of age, as to any real estate alienated by the tutor in cases not provided by law.

For the prescription arising from the ten or twenty years' possession, there must be good faith and apparently good title; if therefore the title be defective with respect to form, there can be no basis for the ten or twenty years' prescription.

Also, any interruption, either natural or legal, suspends prescription. A natural interruption is said to take place, when the possessor is deprived of possession of the thing for more than a year, either by [* cxiv] the ancient proprietor or by a third person.

*

A legal interruption takes place, when the possessor has been cited to appear before a court of justice, on account of either the property or the possession. It ceases likewise to run, when the debtor or possessor makes acknowledgment of the right of the person whose title they prescribed.

Husbands and wives cannot prescribe against one another.

Minors and persons under interdiction, cannot be prescribed against.

Married women may be prescribed against, though not separated of property, for all belonging to them and administered by their husbands, saving their recourse against their husbands.

But prescription does not take place during marriage, as it respects property alienated which made a part of the dowry, nor in any case during marriage when the action of the wife may be prejudicial to her husband.

Finally, lands not acquirable by alienation, cannot be obtained by prescrip

tion.

The only saving in favor of foreigners or citizens of other States is, the requiring twenty years instead of ten, as heretofore mentioned.

To this is to be added, that if the true proprietor of the land resided at times in the State, and at times out of it, two years' absence must be computed as one year of actual residence, and thus added to the time of residence already elapsed.

Any act which amounted to an express or tacit renunciation, would bar limitation. As yet, there are no decisions worthy of note upon this subject. When the civil code is silent, this State is obliged to have recourse to the Spanish law concerning limitations, as laid down in the Partidas and in Febrero. Prescription may be pleaded in any stage of a cause, even on an appeal. Creditors, and every other person who may have any interest in acquiring an estate by prescription, have a right to plead it, even in case the person claiming such an estate should renounce the said right of prescription.

All personal actions may be prescribed against after thirty years; nor can it be alleged that the party pleading it acted knavishly.

After the expiration of ten years, the architect or undertaker is released from all responsibility with respect to stone or brick buildings, and five years will release him with respect to wooden buildings or frames filled up with brick.

Slaves may be prescribed for, in half the time required for the prescription of immovable estates, and in the same manner and subject to the same exceptions.

If a man has a public and notorious possession of a thing for three years in presence of the owner, he being a resident within the State, he is [* cxv] presumed to have known it, and the property is vested in the possessor, unless stolen.

And if the thing were stolen, yet if purchased by the possessor at a public market or fair, or at auction, or from a person dealing in similar commodities, the owner can only re-obtain possession, by paying the purchase-money.

Claims of teachers or schoolmasters for lessons given by the month, are prescribed against after a year, unless a settlement has taken place, a note given, or an action be pending before a court of justice.

So likewise with keepers of taverns and boarding-houses, for boarding and lodging.

So also with workmen and day laborers for payment of their day's works, and of the materials by them furnished.

So also for domestics, who let their services by the year.

The arrears on life annuities, alimony, rent of houses, and rural estates, the interest of money lent, and every thing generally which is to be paid by the year or at shorter periods, may be prescribed against at the expiration of five years.

The prescription as regards all these persons (beginning with schoolmasters), runs against minors and interdicted persons, reserving to them all such remedies as they may have against their tutors and curators.

The only savings are, the tacit or express renunciation.

There are no savings exclusively in favor of citizens of other States or foreigners.

WESTERN STATES.

TENNESSEE.

Real Property, 1819, Ch. 28. (Compilation of the Statutes of Tennessee, 1826.)

Whereas many disputes have arisen with regard to the proper construction of the statutes of limitation, and the time seems fast approaching when the titles to land will become so perplexed, that no man will know from whom to take or buy lands for remedy whereof.

SECTION 1. In all cases where any person or persons, their heirs or assigns, shall at the passing of this act, or at any time after having had seven years' possession of any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, which have been [* cxvi] granted by this State or the State of North Carolina, holding or * claiming the same by virtue of a deed, or deeds of conveyance, devise, grant, or other assurance, purporting to convey an estate in fee-simple, and no claim

by suit in law or equity, effectually prosecuted, shall have been set up or made to the said lands, tenements and hereditaments within the aforesaid time, then and in that case the person or persons, their heirs or assigns so holding possession as aforesaid, shall be entitled to keep and hold in possession, such quantity of land as shall be specified and described in his, her, or their deed of conveyance, devise, grant or other assurance as aforesaid, in preference to and against all and all manner of person or persons whatsoever; and any person or persons and their heirs, who shall neglect, or who shall have neglected for the said term of seven years, to avail themselves of the benefit of any title, legal or equitable, which he, she or they may have to any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, within this State, by suit of law or equity, effectually prosecuted against the person or persons so as aforesaid in possession, shall be forever barred, and the person or persons, their heirs or assigns, so holding or keeping possession as aforesaid, for the term aforesaid, shall have a good and indefeasible title in feesimple to such lands, tenements, or hereditaments: Provided, That if any person or persons that have been, are, or shall be entitled to commence and prosecute such suit in law or equity, shall have been, be, or shall be, at the time of said right or title first descended, accrued, come or fallen within the age of twenty-one years, feme covert, non compos mentis, imprisoned, or beyond the limits of the United States and the territories thereof, that then such person and persons, his, her or their heir or heirs, shall or may, notwithstanding the seven years be expired, bring his or her suit or action, as he, she or they might have done, before this act, so as such person and persons, or his, her or their heir and heirs, shall, within three years next after his, her and their full age, discoverture, coming of sound mind, enlargement out of prison, coming into the United States or the territories thereof, or death, take benefit of and commence such suit, and at no time after the said three years. Provided, also, That in the construction of this saving, no cumulative disability shall prevent the bar aforesaid, but shall only apply to that or those disabilities which existed when the right to sue first accrued, and no other: and Provided, also, That such suit so commenced to save the bar, shall be a suit prosecuted with effect and no other.

SECT. 2. No person or persons or their heirs, shall have, sue or maintain any action or suit, either in law or equity, for any lands, tenements or hereditaments, but within seven years next after his, her or their right to commence, have or maintain such suit shall have come, fallen or accrued, and that all suits, either in law or equity, for the recovery of any lands, tenements or hereditaments, shall be had and sued within seven years next after the title or cause of action, or suits accrued or fallen, and at po time after the said seven years shall have passed: Provided, That if any person or persons [* cxvii] that is or shall be entitled to commence and prosecute such suit or action in law or equity be, or shall be, at the time of said right or title first accrued, come or fallen, within the age of twenty-one years, feme covert, non compos mentis, imprisoned or beyond the limits of the United States and the territories thereof, that then such person or persons, his, her and their heir or heirs, shall and may, notwithstanding the said seven years be expired, bring his or her suit or action as he, she or they might have done before this act, so as such person and persons, his, her and their heir and heirs, shall, within three