O'Donnell v. Sweeney
Supreme Court of Alabama
Error to the Circuit Court of Macon. Assumpsit on a promissory note by the defendant against the plaintiffs in error. The defendants below pleaded non-assumpsit, and a special plea, that the note was executed on the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday, in consideration of a horse sold by the plaintiff, on that day to the defendants, in the regular course and prosecution of the plaintiff’s trade and occupation, áre.
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Error to the Circuit Court of Macon. Assumpsit on a promissory note by the defendant against the plaintiffs in error. The defendants below pleaded non-assumpsit, and a special plea, that the note was executed on the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday, in consideration of a horse sold by the plaintiff, on that day to the defendants, in the regular course and prosecution of the plaintiff’s trade and occupation, áre. To this plea, the plaintiff demurred, and .the court sustained the demurrer. Judgment being rendered for the plaintiff, the defendants prosecute this writ, and assign for…
1Opinion of the CourtOrmond, J.
It is a settled principle of the common law, that all contracts which are founded on an act prohibited by a statute under a penalty, are void, although not expressly declared to be so. [Wilson v. Spencer, 1 Rand. 76; Comyn on Con. 26; Collins v. Blanton, 2 Wilson, 341; Drury v. Defontaine, 1 Taun. 135.] It would indeed be a strange anomaly if a contract, made in violation of a statute, and prohibited by a penalty, could be enforced in the courts of the same country whose laws are thus trampled on and set at defiance.
The statute violated in the making of the contract here sought to be…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- Wilson v. SpencerSupreme Court of Virginia · 1822
- Tex. & Pac. R'y Co. v. HaysCourt of Appeals of Texas · 1884
3Cited by13 opinions
- McGowan v. MarylandSupreme Court of the United States · 1961
- Saltmarsh v. TuthillSupreme Court of Alabama · 1848
- Shattuck v. WatsonMichigan Supreme Court · 1910
- Shippey v. EastwoodSupreme Court of Alabama · 1846
- Dodson v. HarrisSupreme Court of Alabama · 1846
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