Limitation of Actions. 6. All actions of replevin, and all other actions for taking, detaining, or injuring goods or chattels. 7. All other actions on the case, except actions for slanderous words and for libels. All actions for assault and battery and for false imprisonment shall be commenced within three years next after the cause of action shall accrue, and not afterward. All actions for slanderous words and for libels shall be commenced within two. years next after the cause of action shall accrue, and not afterward. All actions against sheriffs, for the misconduct or negligence of their deputies, shall be commenced within four years next after the cause of action shall accrae, and not afterward. None of the foregoing provisions shall apply to any action brought upon a promissory note which is signed in the presence of an attesting witness, but the action in such case shall be commenced within fourteen years next after the cause of action shall accrue thereon, and not afterward. All actions of debt or scire farias on judgment shall be brought within eight years next after the rendition of such judgment; and all actions of debt on SPECIALTIES within eight years after the cause of action accrued. All actions of covenant other than the covenants of warranty and seisin, contained in deeds of conveyance of lands, shall be brought within eight years after the cause of action accrued, and not afterward. All actions of covenant brought on any covenant of warranty contained in any deed of conveyance of land shall be brought within eight years next after there shall have been a final decision against the title of the covenanter in such deed, and all actions of covenant brought on any covenant of seisin contained in any such deed, shall be brought within fifteen years next after the cause of action shall accrue, and not afterward. When any person shall be disabled to prosecute an action in the courts of this state by reason of his being an alien subject, or citizen of any country at war with the United States, the time of the continuance of such war shall not be deemed any part of the respective periods herein limited for the commencement of any of the actions before mentioned. If, at the time when any cause of action of a personal nature, mentioned in this act, shall accrue against any person, he shall be out of the state, the action may be commenced within the time herein limited therefor, after such person shal come into the state; and if, after any cause of action shall have accrued, and before the statute has run, the person against whom it has accrued shall be absent from and reside out of the state, and shall not have known property within this state which could be attached, the time of his absence shall not be taken as any part of the time limited for the commencement of the action. If, in any action duly commenced within the time limited and allowed therefor, the writ fail of a sufficient service or return, by any unavoidable accident, or by any default or neglect of the officer to whom it is committed, or if the writ shal! be abated, or the action otherwise defeated or avoided by the death of any party thereto, or for any matter of form; or if, after verdict for the plaintiff, the judgment shall be arrested; or if a judgment for the plaintiff shall be reversed on a writ of error or on execution, the plaintiff may commence a new action for the same cause at any time within one year after the abatement or other determination of the original suit, or after the reversal of the judgment thereon; and if the cause of action survive, his executor or administrator may, in case of his death, commence such new action within the said one year, or within one year after letters shall have been granted. Whenever the commencement of any suit shall be stayed by an injunction of any court of equity, the time during which such injunction shall be in force shall not be deemed any portion of the time limited for the commencement of such suit. If any person, entitled to bring any action in this act specified, shall, at the time when the cause of action accrues, be a minor, or a married woman, insane, or imprisoned, such person may bring the said action within the times respectively limited after the disability shall be removed. None of the provisions of this act shall apply to suits brought to enforce payment on bills, notes, or other evidences of debt, issued by moneyed corporations. All the provisions of this act shall apply to the case of a debt or contract alleged by way of setoff, and the time of limitation of such debt shall be computed in like manner as if an action had been commenced therefor at the time when the plaintiff's action was commenced. If one of two or more joint contractors make such written promise or acknowledgment, it shall not affect the other joint contractors. ALL deeds and other conveyances of lands or of any estate or interest therein shall be signed and sealed by the party granting the same, and signed by two or more witnesses, and acknowledged by the grantor, before a justice of the peace, and recorded at length in the clerk's office of the town in which such lands lie Town clerks, notaries public, and masters in chancery, have the same power to take acknowledgments as justices of the peace, by act of 1850. If such lands lie in a town in which there is no town-clerk, the conveyance shall be recorded by the clerk of the county in which such lands lie. Every deed by husband and wife shall contain an acknowledgment by the wife, made apart from her husband, before a judge of the supreme court, or a judge of the county court, or some justice of the peace, that she executed such conveyance freely and without any fear or compulsion of her husband, a certificate of which acknowledgment so taken shall be endorsed on the deed by the authority taking the same, and recorded at large with the deed; and every such deed, not so acknowledged and recorded, shall be void as against the wife. All deeds and other conveyances, and powers of attorney for the conveyance of lands, the acknowledgment or proof of which shall have been or hereafter shall be taken without this state, if certified agreeably to the laws of the state, province, or kingdom, in which it was taken, shall be as valid as though the same were taken before some proper officer or court within this state; and the proof of the same may be taken and the same acknowledged with like effect before any justice of the peace, magistrate, or notary public, within the United States or in any foreign country, or before any commissioner appointed for that purpose by the governor of this state, or before any minister, chargé des affaires, or consul, of the United States, in any foreign country; and the acknowledgment of a deed by a femme covert (married woman), in the form required by this act, may be taken by either of said persons. No deed or other conveyance of any lands, or of any estate or interest therein made, by virtue of a power of attorney, shall be of any effect or admissible in evidence, unless such power of attorney shall have been signed, sealed, and acknowledged and recorded in the office where such deed shall have been recorded. A seal must be used. Rights of Married Women. IT shall be lawful for any married woman, by herself and in her name, or in the name of any third person, with his assent as her trustee, to cause to be insured for her sole use, the life of her husband for any definite period, or for the term of his natural life, and in case of her surviving her husband, the sum or net amount of the insurance becoming due and payable by the terms of the insurance. shall be payable to her and for her own use, free from the claims of the representatives of her husband or of any of his creditors; but such exemp tions shall not apply when the amount of premium annually paid shall exceed three hundred dollars. In case of the death of the wife before the decease of her husband, the amount of the insurance may be made payable, after death, to her children, for their use, and to their guardian if under age. It shall be lawful for any unmarried woman by herself and in her own name, or in the name of any third person as her trustee, to cause to be insured for her sole use, the life of her father or brother for any definite period, or during his natural life; and in case of her surviving such person, she shall be entitled to receive the amount of the net insurance in the same manner as in case of married women. DOWER. The widow of any deceased person shall be entitled to dower, or the use, during her natural life, of one third of the real estate of which her husband died seized in his own right, unless she shall be barred. The widow may be barred of her dower in all the lands of her husband in the following ways: 1. When a jointure shall have been settled on such widow by her husband or other person, or some pecuniary provision shall have been made for her, before her marriage. with or without her agreement or consent; or after her marriage, with her consent, to have effect after the death of her husband, and expressed to be in lieu and discharge of her dower. 2. When her husband, by his last will and testament, shall have made provision for such widow, which, it shall appear to the probate court, was intended to be in lieu of dower. 3. When the husband shall die, leaving no children or representatives of chil dren, and the widow shall thereby be entitled to one half of the estate of her husband. Yet she may elect to waive all these provisions, and to t to take her dower instead, and notify the court, within eight months after the will is proved, or letters of administration are granted, of her election, in writing. Rate of Interest. THE rate of interest is fixed at six per cent.; and interest paid beyond that rate may be recovered back, with costs. Wills. WILLS must be in writing, and signed by the testator, or by some other person in his presence and by his express direction, and attested and subscribed by three or more credible witnesses in the presence of the testator AND OF EACH OTHER. |