Page:United States Reports, Volume 1.djvu/200

Rh 

1786.

had iffued in that State againft him ; and, afterwards, in October, 1783, was difcharged by their Act of Infolvency. A rule to plead had been entered in the action brought in Pennʃylvania June Term 1783, and judgment was figned for want of a plea, at the enfuing September  Term.

Bradƒord move to fet the judgment of this Court afide, or to open it, in order to admit the Defendant to plead the proceedings and difcharge in New-Jerʃey.

Upon the argument it was ftated, and agreed, that no perfon was entitled to relief under the Infolvent Law of New-Jerʃey, who was not born in that ftate, or had not refided in it one year free from arreft ; that a man indebted to any amount was entitled to the benefit of it ; that a perfon not in execution was not excluded ; that the Act requires notice to be inferted in the public papers of New-York  if the debtor lives in Eaʃt Jerʃey,  or in thofe of Pennʃylvania  if he lives in Weʃt-Jerʃey;  and that every debtor, who compiled with the terms of the Act, became thereby exprefdly difcharged from all debts due at the time of the affignment of his effects or the ufe of his creditors, or contracted for before that time and payable after, ‘‘ ʃo ƒar as regards the impriʃonment or detention oƒ his perʃon. ’’

Bradƒord and Lewis,   in fupport of the motion, contended that the benefit and effect of the New-Jerʃey law ought, in the prefent cafe, to be extended to Pennʃylvania, as well by the general principle of the law of nations, as by the particular obligation arifing from the articles of confederation.

1. They obferved, that by the Law oƒ Nations, every tranfaction, not yet compleated, which has a view to its completion in a foreign country, muft be determined according to the municipal law of that country: But if perfectly compleat in the country in which it originated, the Lex Loci  that decided, muft protect it in every other country where the validity of the tranfaction is called in queftion. 1 ''Black. Rep.'' 258. 2 Burr. 1078. Finch 186. 2 Show. 231. If the validity of a contract depends upon the laws of a foreign country in which it is perfected, and cannot be affected by any arguments drawn from the laws of the country where a fubfequent action is brought, certainly a judicial decifion (which, like an Act once in force, but afterwards repealed, vefts a right in the party, though its immediate operation is impeded) cannot be otherwife expounded and enforced than by the laws of the country where is is pronounced:  And proceedings under the Infolvent Act amount to a judicial decifion ; for, they determine a debt, and give a remedy. Sir T. Raym. 473. They might, indeed, be faid to amount to more ; as, in giving the creditor all the advantage of the debtor's effects they become a fpecies of execution, and, therefore, may be confidered a fatisfaction. It is not fmall injuftice, when a debtor has been compelled to affign all his effects, when he has given every fatisfaction that he poffibly can, to purfue his footfteps, on every change of fituation, and commit him again and again into cuftody. If the fuit in New-Jerʃey had terminated in another manner, for  ftance,