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63 Vt. 479

Murray v. Mattison

Supreme Court of Vermont

Decided February 15, 1891

Supreme Court of Vermont · decided 1891-02-15

Trespass for an assault upon one Rose Murray. The suit was brought in the name of the said Rose and her husband, John Murray. The plaintiff moved to amend the writ by striking out the name of John Murray. Heard upon this motion at the December term, 1890, Taft, J., presiding. The motion was allowed and the defendants excepted. The suit was returnable to the June term, 1890. The motion was made at the following December term. No. 25, Acts of 1890 was approved Nov. 26, 1890.

Relies on Hine v. Pomeroy · People ex rel. Israel v. Tibbets

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1891-02-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 14 later decisions — most recently October 2024

13 state decisions

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Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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¶1The opinion of the court was delivered by

ROWELL, J.

¶2No. 25, St. of 1890, empowers courts to amend civil process by striking out the name of a party improperly joined as a plaintiff.” No. 31 of the same St., passed the same day, provides that no act of the General Assembly shall affect a suit begun or pending at the time of its passage, but declares that the act shall not apply to acts regulating practice in the courts, nor relating to the amendment of process or. pleading as to parties or otherwise. The former act is remedial and salutary. Its language is broad enough to cover suits pending at its passage; and when read in the light of the latter act, it is clear that the Legislature intended that it should cover such suits.

¶3And as a rule of construction, the law is, that when a new enactment deals with practice and procedure only, it applies to all actions, unless otherwise expressed, whether commenced before or after its passage. Wright v. Hale, 6 H. & N. 227; Kembray v. Draper, L. R. 3 Q. B. 160; The People v. Tibbetts, 4 Cow. 384; Hine v. Pomeroy, 39 Vt. 211; Sedgw. Stat. Law (2d Ed.) 163, in note; 10 Am. Dec. 139, in note.

¶4That such statutes are not unconstitutional as taking away vested rights, is too well settled to require discussion.

¶5Judgment affirmed.

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