Osborne v. Lindstrom

46 L.R.A. 715, 81 N.W. 72, 9 N.D. 1, 1899 N.D. LEXIS 145
CourtNorth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 31, 1899
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 46 L.R.A. 715 (Osborne v. Lindstrom) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering North Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Osborne v. Lindstrom, 46 L.R.A. 715, 81 N.W. 72, 9 N.D. 1, 1899 N.D. LEXIS 145 (N.D. 1899).

Opinion

Bartholomew, C. J.

This action was brought in April, 1897, upon a judgment rendered in 1883. The defendant answered, pleading the statute of limitations. To this answer a general demurrer was interposed, which was sustained, and, defendant electing to stand upon his answer, final, judgment was rendered against him, from which he appeals, assigning error upon the ruling of the court upon the demurrer.

At the time of the rendition of the judgment upon which the action was based, the period of limitation of actions upon judgments was twenty years. Section 52, Code Civ. Proc. 1877. Such remained the law until the Revised Codes of 1895 went into effect, section 5200 of which reduced the limitation to ten years, and a subsequent section repealed the pre-existing limitation law. The Revised Codes were prepared pursuant to chapter 74, Laws 1893. which created a commission for that purpose. That act prescribed the duties of such commission as to existing laws, and by section 4 provided that, as soon as practicable after the adjournment of the fourth legislative session (which would be the session of 1895), said commission should complete its labors by incorporating with the Codes all the laws of that session, should consecutively number the sections, and index the whole, advertise for 30 days for bids for printing the same, and should superintend the printing of 2,500 volumes thereof. Section 7 provided that these volumes should be delivered to the secretary of state, and that thereupon the governor should issue his proclamation announcing such fact, and accepting such Codes, and that the same should go into effect thirty days after the date of such proclamation. The entire Code of Civil Procedure, as it stands in the Revised Codes, was passed as a single bill by the fourth legislative assembly, and was approved March 2, 1895. The printed volumes of the Revised Codes were completed and delivered [5]*5to the secretary of state about December i, 1895, and the governor issued his proclamation accepting the same,' so that they went into effect on January 1, 1896.

It will thus be seen that the judgment upon which this action is based was rendered nearly twelve years before the new statute of limitations was enacted, and more than twelve years before it went into effect. It is the contention of respondent that the limitation law of 1895 applies only to causes arising thereafter, and not to preexisting causes of action, or that, if it be held to apply to causes of action already in existence, as to the cause of action in this case it is unconstitutional, because it bars the cause of action without leaving a reasonable time within which to assert it. On the other hand, appellant claims that the amended law applies to causes of action already existing, as well as to causes thereafter arising, and that as to the cause of action in this particular case the act is constitutional, because respondent was bound to take notice of the passage of the act and of its terms, and he had all the time from that date, to-wit: March 2, 1895, until the act went into effect, on January 1, 1896, within which to bring his action upon the judgment, and that this was a reasonable time therefor. Some of the questions that necessarily arise in this case were involved in the case of Bank v. Braithwaite, 7 N. D. 358, 75 N. W. Rep. 244, and some of them were there ruled. That case is much discussed by counsel in this case, and it is proper that we state some matters concerning that case that may not wholly appear from the opinion filed. The case arose under this same statute. The limitation of ten years had not run against the judgment there involved at the time of the enactment of the amended statute, nor at the time it took effect, nor until three and one-half months thereafter. We held that as to that judgment the law was constitutional, because there remained a reasonable time within which to assert that cause of action, and that no action cou-ld be maintained thereon after ten years. But that was not the chief contention in that case, nor the one to which the energies of counsel and the attention of the court were directed. In that case no attempt was made to bring an action on the judgment. Supplementary proceedings on execution had been instituted before the expiration of the ten years, and were pending when the bar of the statute fell. The chief contention was that such proceedings survived, notwithstanding the bar of the statute, and such was the first judgment of the court. But, on further examination and additional arguments of counsel, we changed our views upon that point, and held that with the falling of the bar the judgment was extinguished, and with it died the supplementary proceedings. But, under these circumstances, the minor questions in the case were not, perhaps, as carefully considered as they would have been had they not been kept thus in partial eclipse. We held in that case that the amended law applied to existing causes of action, and with that holding we are well content. [6]*6At the same time we recognize all that counsel urge relative to statutory construction. Generally speaking, statutes act prospectively only, and are not given retrospective effect, unless such was the clear legislative purpose. True, this rule has sometimes been referred to in dealing with statutes of limitation, but never, we think, with entire accuracy, except where it has been sought to apply such a statute to a cause of action that had been asserted before the statute was enacted. That, of course, cannot be done. Ordinarily, statutes of limitation act very much like rules of evidence, which, in one sense, they are. They are to be applied to all cases thereafter brought, irrespective of when the cause of action arose, subject, of course, to the universally recognized rule that they cannot be used to cut off causes of action without leaving reasonable time within which to assert them. Our statute declares that “an action upon a judgment or decree of any court of the United States or of any court or territory within the United States” must be commenced within ten years after the cause of action accrued. That language admits of no exceptions. It covers judgments already rendered, just as certainly as it covers those to be rendered. As we have said, the former statute of limitations was in terms repealed. If we say the new act does not apply to causes of action upon judgments already rendered (and, if not to judgments, then to no other cause of action already accrued), then we have that great mass of causes of action without any limitation whatever, and this confessedly, by reason of a statute that was intended to shorten the period of limitations. But it is perhaps useless to adduce arguments or cite authorities to show the legislative intent. Our statute determines that beyond cavil. Section 5149, Rev. Codes, reads “When a limitation or period of time prescribed in any existing statute for acquiring a right or barring a remedy, or for any other purpose, has begun to run before this Code goes into effect, and the same or any limitation is prescribed in this Code, the time which has already run shall be deemed part of the time prescribed as such limitation by this Code.” That section can be given no force whatever, unless our statute of limitation were intended to apply to causes of action upon which the old statutes of limitation had commenced to run before the new went into effect. That section is also a complete answer to another argument made by respondent.

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Bluebook (online)
46 L.R.A. 715, 81 N.W. 72, 9 N.D. 1, 1899 N.D. LEXIS 145, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/osborne-v-lindstrom-nd-1899.