Duvall v. Fearson

Goldsborough, J., delivered the opinion of this court. The appeal in this case was taken from a judgment of the Circuit court for Harford county, rendered in favor of the appellee, upon his demurrer to the third and fourth pleas of the appellant, pleaded to an action of debt, on a judgment rendered in favor of the appellee, in the Circuit court of the District of Columbia. The pleas to which the appellee demurred, were nil debet and the statute of limitations, that the action did not accrue within three years before the issuing of the original writ in this cause. The judgment of the court below is correct, and must be affirmed'.

As to the plea of nil debat, the case of Hughes vs. Davis, 8 Md. Rep., 271 , is conclusive. This court, in that case, not only sustained the demurrer to a similar plea, but fully recognized the constitutional exercise of the legislative power of Congress, in passing the Act of the 26th of May, 1790, and also the Act of the 27th of March, 1804, extending the provisions of the Act of 1790 to the records and courts of the respective territories of the United States, including the District of Columbia. In view of this judicial interpretation given to the Act of 1804, by which records and courts of the respective territories, and the judgments of those courts are placed upon an equality with judgments.of a State court, it is only necessary, upon the questions raised in this record, to inquire, what is tile effect of a judgment in the State where it is rendered? In the case of The Bank of the United States, vs. The Merchants Bank of Baltimore, 7 Gill, 415 ,-this interesting question was elaborately considered, and many authorities reviewed.