Madden v. Madden

Decided May 15, 1818

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

was an action brought to recover the va» lue of a horse which defendant purchased of plaintiff, as he alleged. The defendant set up a discount, which, however, was barred by the statute of limitations; but the presiding Judge, conceiving that the case of the State vs. Guillará, 1 Bay, 492, admitted an account which was barred, to be set off in this way, directed the Jury to find the amount of the discount, for the defendant, under the discount act of the state.

Decided 1818-05-15

¶1The opinion of the Court was delivered by

Mr. Justice Grimke.

¶2I am of opinion, that the decision was incorrect; for after a debt is once barred by the statute, it is extinct, unless taken out of it by some act or acknowledgment of the debtor; and that the defendant could not succeed in any action he might have brought on it, without such act or acknowledgment; but none such was here proved. A new trial must, therefore, be granted, unless the defendant release that part of the verdict which gives him the forty-nine dollars as his discount.

Colcoclc, Mott, Cheves, Gantt, and Johnson, X concurred.