Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 6.djvu/464

 452 FEDERAL REPORTER. �bas siept on her rights, if she had any, for more than 50 years. �Bnt ii is eontended that as Hammond absconded from Missouri in 1824, and died in 1842, and it was supposed his interest in the Hunot tract had been disposed of under the sheriff's sale in 1823, it was not known that he had any eqtate calling for administration tUl 1879. �Hammond had what is termed a New Madrid claim, npon which levy had been made under the judgment of 1819. That claim came to naught for failure to make the return required by the act of 1822, For that and other reasons etated by the supreme court of Missouri, nothing passed to the purchasers at the sheriff's sale under the judgment of 1819. �If Hammond owed anything to the Clark estate, she had a right to pursue her demand as soon as she attained her majority, and cannot tack her subsequent disabilities by suc- cessive covertures to prevent the operation of the statute of limitations. Henee, if she claims that said judgment enures to her benefit there are two complete defences thereto : First, the statute of limitations; second, the presumption of pay- ment after the lapse of 50 years. If her demand is on an open account against Hammond, and she is willing to waive his unauthorized action and treat him as her agent, that demand accrued as early as 1819, and he has been dead, so far as she is concerned, for nearly 38 years before this suit was brought. �It is olaimed that, inasmuch as no administration was taken on Hammond's estate until 1879, the plaintiff has the statutory period after letters of administration to establish her demand, however stale. I do not so read the Missouri decisions cited, and if they asserted any such doctrine there would be an end indefinitely to statutes of repose in case of death and failure to administer. The administration statutes require claimants to present their demand within the times stated, or stand barred. They do not revive claims previously barred by the statutes of limitation. I so understand the supreme court of Missouri to hold — a ruling in couformity with well-recognized doctrines on that subject. ��� �