Case ID: tex_39/html/0400-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Ogden, P. J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Frank Dowell v. J. G. Russell.
    Without discussing the precise time when emancipation took effect, that on the fifteenth day of June, 1865, African slavery had been abolished in the United States.
    Appeal from Dallas. Tried below before the Hon. John J. G-ood.
    At the Fall term, 1866, suit was brought by Russell, the-holder, against Dowell, the maker, and Robinson, endorser of a note dated fifteenth of June,'1865, and due September 1 following, for “four hundred dollars’ worth of merchantable flour.”
    Dowell died before trial, and his widow, Caroline Dow-ell, was made a party.
    
      - Robinson plead laches on the part of the plaintiff in not bringing suit at the first term of the court "after ma - turity of the note, and the widow set up want of consideration, alleging the note was given for a negro boy named Robert, and therefore illegal and void. On the ninth of July, 1867, there was a trial, and verdict and judgment for plaintiff and against defendant Dowell, for $459.35, from which the latter appealed.
    
      Bowers & Walker, for appellant, cited the Emancipation cases, in 31 Texas, 504.
    ÍJo brief for the appellee was furnished to the Reporters.
   Ogden, P. J.

This suit was brought on a promissory note, given June 15, 1865, for the purchase money of a certain negro. The. note was given to W. R. Robinson, and by him transferred to J. G. Russell, in August, 1865. The maker of the note having died, his widow made herself a party defendant, and pleaded failure and want of consideration; and further, that the note was given in furtherance of an illegal traffic, and was therefore null and void.

Without entering again into the discussion of the question when emancipation took effect in Texas, or attempting to fix the precise date when that important measure went into operation, this court is unanimously of the opinion, that on the fifteenth day of June, 1865, African slavery had been abolished in the United States, and that negroes were no longer the subject of legal traffic. It "follows, that. the note sued on was executed in an illegal traffic, and in violation of a sound public policy, and therefore without any legal consideration, and that its payment cannot now be enforced in the courts of the country.

The judgment of the District Court is, therefore, reversed and the cause dismissed.

Bevebséd and dismissed.