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9 S.C.L. 269

Adamson v. Smith

Supreme Court of South Carolina

Decided May 15, 1818

Supreme Court of South Carolina · decided 1818-05-15

This action •vVas assumpsit on a promissory * r J note, given by defendant, and John Kirkpatrick, _ _ _ to William Adamson. Upwards oí tour years had elapsed, from the time the note became due, to A . the death, of William Adamson. During one year and five months of this period, William Adamson was of sane mind; after which he became insane, and continued so until his death.

Decided 1818-05-15

Gantt, 3.

¶1dissenting, gave the following opinion.

¶2I do not concur in this opinion. My reasons are, that the Legislature never designed, nor does it comport with just policy, that the statute should so operate as to bar the claims of those, who, for the time mentioned in the statute, are incapacitated by non-age, or insanity, from protecting their rights. It is a dictate of sound policy, that the statute should have free scope and operation against those legally capacitated to protect themselves, not against the infant, or person of unsound mind. Besides, I think the word “ accrued” in the adh *278is, by the construction given, restricted in its true and just import; its proper signification, extendingi in my opinion, to the whole period of fmil, years> With these exceptions, I concur in the exposition given to the statute of limitations.

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