Peabody v. McAvoy

This was an action to recover the amount of a promissory note made and payable in Canada.

Peabody, as indorsee and holder, brought the suit against McAyoy as maker, and the main question was whether the Canadian stamp acts made it invalid. The trial was without a jury, and the court, upon proof of the Canadian laws, ruled that they rendered the note invalid. It is now urged for the plaintiff, that although the court found, as a fact, that the provincial statutes made the note invalid, yet, that the meaning of the foreign law was not a question of fact, but one of law; and that in deciding that…