Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1884-03-21

THE VERMONT REPOR rs.
SOME OF THE IMPORTANT AND CURIOUS DRcIs.
IONS WHICH THE SUPREME COURT HAS MADE
DURING THE PAST YEAR.

SOME OF THE IMPORTANT AND CURIOUS DEcIs-
IONS WHICH THE SUPREME COURT HAS MADE
DURING THE PAST YEAR.
From the Burlington Free Press.l
The just published ffty-ffth volume of
Vermont Law reports contains several impor-
tant and novel decisions During the year
the state supreme court decided that a re-
spondent in criminal trial is entitled to an
appeal, if claimed within two hours, to the
county court from judgment Of a justice
OF the peace, though he negects to give
bond It had been the practice of justices
to refuse an appeal to respondents unless they
furnished bail.
In pauper cases the court decided that a
list of 50 and a continuous settlement of FIVE
years in one town are necessary TO constitute
a legal settlement and in another case it was
held that as dogs were rated in the grand list
at 81 each, they are a ratRble estate within
the meaning Of the law.
A locomotive fireman sued a railroad com
pAny for damages for injuries sustained by q
defective culvert on his employers property.
The court disregarded an old ruling and de-
cided in favor Of plaintiff, holding that the
negligence of the bridge-builder and road
master in caring for the culvert was the neg
| lgence Of the defendant, and that notice Of
| the defective construction of the culvert-
which it was conceded was given TO the
bridge-builder and road master-vas notice
to the defendant.
The question was raised as to whether q
| female was liable in Vermont for q debt con-
tracted by her in Massachusetts while she
was q wife. 1t was conceded that under the
laws of Massachusetts, she had the legal ca
| pacity to bind herself to pay such indebted
ness, and to carry on business. The court
held that the plaintiff could recover, because
a law which is valid where made. is valid ev-
| erywhere, and the contract of a married wom-
an made in another state, and valid there, is
valid here
A defendant mortgaged his farm to an in
surance company for Sll 200. The mort
gage notes became overdue, and the defend
ant chAttel-mortgaged to secure q further
overdue indebtedness Of $1,000, among other
things, 'all the grass and oats and corn now
growing on 23O acres OF said farm" Later,
a deputy sheriff served a writ upon the de-
fendant in favor of third parties, and attach.
ed the hay and oats which had been chattel-
| mortgaged to the insurance company, and
| which at that time were stored in the barn
| but between the service of this writ aud the
issuing of the execution thereupon the insur-
ance company had disposed of the oats and
hay. The court decided the mortgagor of q
farm, in possession and after condition brok
en-, may make a valid chattel-mortgage Of the
| growing grass thereon, Nhlch Is superior tC
the lien acquired by another creditors subse
quent attachment
Another female defendant, while she was
married woman and owner in her own right
Of a farm borrowed some money for the i'm
provement Of her separate estate, aud exc
cuted and delivered her promissory note
therefor. When the plaintiff brought sui
she endeayored to avoid payment by setting
up that her note was void because she gave i
when she was a married woman. Judg,
Redfield declared that "Chief Justice Shaw
of Massachusetts, speaking of the legal con
dition Of a married woman under the com
mon law, said man and his wife were one
and that one is the husband But it is nov
known and recognized that q man and hi
wife are tls0 and often the important per
sonage of the two is the wife. And it is no
a fortunate, nor, as we think, a strictly cor
rect use of the language to say that contract
of married women are void" The case wa
decided in favor of the plaintiff
The court held in another case that an in
surance contract made by a foreign insur
ance company in this state, before it has com
piled with the statute of this state, and oh
tanned a license, filed a copy of its bylaw
with the secretary Of state, and beooRe re
sponsible for the acts and neglects of il
agents, is void.