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SEC. 10. The last preceding four sections shall not be construed to impair the right of any person to whom the promise to accept a bill may have been made, and who, on the faith of such promise, shall have drawn or negotiated the bill, to recover damages of the party making such promise on his refusal to accept such bill.

SEC. 11. Every person upon whom a bill of exchange is drawn, and to whom the same is delivered for acceptance, who shall destroy such bill, or refuse, within twenty-four hours after such delivery, to return the bill, accepted or non-accepted, to the holder, shall be deemed to have accepted the same.

SEC. 12. On all bills of exchange payable at sight, or at a future day certain, within this District, and on all negotiable promissory notes, orders, and drafts, payable at a future day, within this District, in which there is not an express stipulation to the contrary, grace shall be allowed, except as is provided in the following section, in like manner as it is allowed by the custom of merchants in foreign bills of exchange payable at the expiration of a certain period after date, or at sight.

SEC. 13. The provisions of the last preceding section shall not extend to any bill of exchange, draft, or note payable on demand.

SEC. 14. The following days, namely, the first of January, the fourth day of July, the twenty-fifth day of December, shall, for all purposes whatsoever, as regards the presenting for payment or acceptance, and of the protesting and giving notice of the dishonor of bills of exchange, drafts, and negotiable notes, be treated and considered as is the first day of the week, usually called Sunday.

SEC. 15. Whenever any bill of exchange drawn or endorsed within this District, and payable without the limits of the United States, shall be duly protested for non-acceptance or non-payment, the party liable for the contents of such bill shall, on due notice and demand thereof, pay the same at the current rate of exchange at the time of the demand, and damages at the rate of fifteen per cent. upon the contents thereof, together with interest on the said contents, to be computed from the date of the protest; and said amount of contents, damages, and interest, shall be in full of all damages, charges, and expenses.

SEC. 16. If any bill of exchange, drawn or endorsed within this District, and payable at any place without this District, but within

the United States, shall be duly protested for non-acceptance or nonpayment, the drawer or endorser thereof, due notice being given of such non-acceptance or non-payment, shall pay said bill with legal interest, or according to its tenor and five per cent. damages, together with the costs and charges of protest.

SEC. 17. In all cases where a notice of non-acceptance of a bill of exchange, or non-payment of a bill of exchange, promissory note, or other negotiable instrument, may be given by sending the same by mail, it shall be sufficient if such notice be directed to the city, town, or place where the party sought to be charged resided at the time of drawing, making, or endorsing such bill of exchange, promissory note, or other negotiable instrument, unless such person, at the time of affixing his signature to such bill, note, or negotiable instrument, shall, in addition thereto, specify thereon the post office to which he may require the notice to be addressed.

SEC. 18. The foregoing provisions of this chapter, so far as the same are in conflict with the law as it existed before the passage of this act, shall apply only to such bills of exchange, promissory notes, and other negotiable instruments, as are made or drawn after this act takes effect.

ASSIGNMENTS.

SEC. 19. All bonds, due-bills, and other instruments of writing, not negotiable, hereafter made and signed by any person or corporation, whereby such person or corporation promises or agrees to pay any sum of money, or articles of personal property, or any sum of money in personal property, or acknowledges any sum of money, or articles in personal property, to be due to any other person, shall be, and the same are hereby made, assignable by endorsement thereon, so as absolutely to transfer and vest the property thereof in each and every endorsee successively.

SEC. 20. Any assignee to whom such bond, due-bill, or other instrument of writing, is made payable by any such endorsement or assignment, may, in his own name, institute and maintain an action, and recover thereon, against the person or corporation who shall have made or signed the same.

SEC. 21. The maker or obligor of any such bond, due-bill, or other instrument of writing, may set up and show any defence to such action which he had thereto, as against the payee or obligee, before

notice of the assignment thereof by such payee or obligee, and which he might have set up and shown, had an action been brought on such bond, due-bill, or other instrument of writing, in the name and for the use of the original payee or obligee.

SEC. 22. Such maker or obligor may set up and show any just matter of payment, set-off, or other defence in his favor, as against the plaintiff in such action; and also all just matters of payment, set-off, or other defence, which he had as against any assignor, before notice of the assignment thereof by such assignor, and which he might have set up and shown, had an action been brought against him by such assignor.

SEC. 23. If any assignee of any such bond, due-bill, or other instrument, having used due diligence, shall fail to recover from the maker or obligor thereof, the money or personal property named therein, he may recover from any previous assignor thereof the full value which he shall have paid for the assignment, with interest from the time of such payment; but shall allow to the defendant, if he be a remote assignor, any just defence which such defendant may have as against the plaintiff, or may have had as against any other intermediate assignor, before notice of assignment.

CHAPTER 27.

MONEY AND INTEREST.

SECTION

1. What shall be the money of account.

SECTION

INTEREST.

2. Accounts and entries otherwise expressed, 4. Rate of interest to be six per cent., where

not rendered invalid.

3. In action for foreign money, its value in money of account to be fixed.

there is no express contract in writing. 5. Parties may agree on any rate of interest,

in writing.

SECTION 1. The money of account of this District shall be the dollar, cent, and mill; and all accounts of officers shall be so kept.

SEC. 2. No writing shall be invalid, nor the force of an account or entry be impaired, because a sum of money is expressed therein. otherwise than in the said money of account.

SEC. 3. In any action for a sum of money expressed in any foreign currency, or otherwise than in the money of account of this District,

the jury, if there be one empanneled, and if not, the court, shall ascertain the value in the said money of account of the sum so expressed, making such allowance for the difference of exchange as shall be just; and the judgment may either be for what may be so ascertained, or for the sum of money expressed as aforesaid, to be discharged by the sum so ascertained.

INTEREST.

SEC. 4. When there is no express contract in writing fixing a different rate of interest, interest shall be allowed at the rate of six per cent. per annum, for all moneys after they become due on any bond, bill, promissory note, or other instrument of writing, on any judgment recovered before any court or justice of the peace of this District, for money lent, for money due on the settlement of accounts from the day on which the balance is ascertained, for money received to the use of another, and retained without the owner's consent, and for money due and withheld by unreasonable delay of payment.

SEC. 5. Parties may agree, in writing, for the payment of any rate of interest on money due, or to become due on any contract; and any judgment or decree rendered on such contract shall conform thereto, and shall bear the interest so agreed upon by the parties, and which shall be specified in the judgment or decree.

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SECTION 1. Limited partnerships for the transaction of mercantile, mechanical, or manufacturing business within this District, may be

formed by two or more persons, upon the terms and subject to the conditions and liabilities prescribed by this chapter; but nothing in this chapter contained shall authorize such partnerships for the purpose of banking or insurance.

SEC. 2. Any such partnership may consist of one or more persons as general partners, who shall be responsible as general partners, and of one or more persons as special partners, who, contributing to the common stock a specific sum, in actual cash payment, as capital, shall not be personally liable for any debts of the partnership, except as hereinafter mentioned.

SEC. 3. The persons forming any such partnership shall make and severally sign a certificate, which shall state the name and place of residence of each partner, the name or firm under which the partnership is to be conducted, who are general and who are special partners, the sum which each special partner contributes, the general nature. of the business to be transacted, the place or places of the said business, and the duration of the partnership.

SEC. 4. No such partnership shall be deemed to be formed, until a certificate, made as aforesaid, shall be acknowledged by all the partners, before some officer authorized to take acknowledgment of deeds, and recorded in the office of the recorder of Washington county, in a book to be kept for that purpose, open to public inspection. If any false statement shall be made in any such certificate, the special shall be liable as general partners.

SEC. 5. The partners shall, for four successive weeks, immediately after such registry, publish a copy of such certificate in some newspaper published in Washington City; if no such publication be made, the partnership shall be deemed general.

SEC. 6. The partnership shall be deemed to be dissolved, when there is an alteration in the name of the partners, in the nature of the business, in the capital thereof by a diminution of it otherwise than by losses, or in the ordinary course of business, or an alteration in any other matter specified in said certificate; and if the partnership be thereafter carried on, it shall be deemed a general partnership, unless there be such renewal as is hereinafter in this chapter mentioned.

SEC. 7. Upon every renewal of a limited partnership, whether because of such alteration, or to continue the partnership beyond the

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