Court Opinion

ID: 9812172
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 22:37:31.580659+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:24:24.745841
License: Public Domain

Smith, O. J.,
concurring. While concurring in the judgment of the Court, that the action is barred by the statute of limitation, I do not ascribe any legal efficacy to the parol promise to pay the debt in consideration of forbearance to sue, in producing the result. §172 of The Code is explicit in declaring, that “no acknowledgment or promise shall be received as evidence of a! new or continuing contract, whereby to take the case out of the operation of this title, unless the same be contained in some writing signed by the party to be charged thereby.” A construction that this plain language does not embrace a case in which delay lias been super-induced by a reliance upon the good faith of the debtor in not setting up the defence, would be in a great measure to neutralize its operation, as it does directly contravene its terms. It is only when the lapse of time would be a bar, that the new promise would have any effect, and to give this effect to an unwritten promise, because of delay, which was the former law, would be to leave it unchanged, notwithstanding the new enactment. The cases relied on have reference to the principle recognized in equity, which will not allow a party to reap the advantages of his own fraudulent representations and conduct, when confided in and acted on by those to whom they were made, and the last one, Barcroft v. Roberts, carries the doctrine to its extreme limits, beyond which I am unwilling to go. In that case, it would have •constituted a successful fraud to have permitted the defendant to escape responsibility.
It seems to me, as the promise to pay, so must the assurance not to take advantage of the statute, be in writing, and thus its efficacy enters into cases, as well in equity as in law, and the act operates evenly and uniformly in both *154jurisdictions. To this effect is Shapley v. Abbott, in the Court of Appeals of New York, 42 New York, 443.