MERCANTILE LAW AMENDMENT ORDINANCE, 1864

MERCANTILE LAW AMENDMENT ORDINANCE, 1864

No. 1 of 1864.
An Ordinance to amend the lawg of trade and commerce.

[13th Septernber, 1864.]

1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Mercantile Law
Amendment Ordinance, 1864.

2. No special promise made by any person to answer for
the debt, default, or miscarriage of another person, being in
writing and signed by the party charged therewith or some
other person by him thereunto lawfully authorized, shall be
deemed invalid to support an action, suit, or other proceeding
to charge the person by whom such promise has been made,
by reason only that the consideration for such promise does not
appear in writing or by necessary inference from a written
document.

3. Every person who, being surety for the debt or duty of
another or being liable with another for any debt or duty, pays
such debt or performs such duty shall be entitled to have
assigned to him, or to a trustee for him, every judgment,
specialty, or other security which is held by the creditor in
respect of such debt or duty, whether such judgment, specialty
or other security is or is not deemed at law to have been satisfied
by the payment of the debt or performance of the duty, and
such person shall be entitled to stand in the place of the creditor,
and to use all the remedies, and, if need be and upon a proper





indemnity, to use the name, of the creditor in any action or
other proceeding, at law or in equity, in order to obtain from
the principal debtor or any co-surety, co-contractor, or co-debtor,
as the case may be, indemnification for the advances made and
loss sustained by tile person who has so paid such debt or
performed such duty, and such payment or performance so
made by such surety shall not be pleadable in bar of any such
action or other proceeding by him: Provided always that no
co-surety, co-contractor, or co-debtor shall be entitled to recover
from any other co-surety, co-contractor, or co-debtor, by the
means aforesaid, more than the just proportion to which, as
between those parties themselves, such last-mentioned person
is justly liable.

4. All actions of account or for not accounting, and suits
for such accounts as concern the trade of merchandise, between
merchant and merchant, their factors or servants, shall be
commenced and sited within six years after the cause of such
actions or suits; and no claim in respect of a matter which
arose - more than six years before the commencement of any
such action or suit shall be enforceable by action or suit by
reason only of some other matter of claim comprised in the
same account having arisen within six years next before the
commencement of such action or suit.

5. No person or persons who is or are entitled to any
action or suit with respect to which the period of limitation
within which the sanne shall be brought is fixed by section 3
of the Act 21 James 1, chapter 16 (the Limitation Act, 1623),
or by section 17 Of the Act 4 & s Anne, chapter 3, or by
section 5 of the Act 53 George 3, chapter 127, or by sections
40, 41 and 42 of the Act 3 & 4 William 4, chapter 27 (the
Real Property Limitation Act, 1833), or by section 3 Of the
Act 3 & 4 William 4, chapter 42, or by section 20 of the Act
16 & 17 Victoria, chapter 113, shall be entitled to any time
within which to commence and sue such action or suit beyond
the period so fixed for the same by the enactments aforesaid,
by reason only of such person or some one or rnore of such
persons being, at the tinle of such cause of action or suit
accrued, absent from the Colony, or, in the cases in which,

4 nd 5 Anne, c. 3 is equivalent to the 4 and 5 Anne, c. 16 of Ruffhead's
Edition.





by virtue of any of the aforesaid enactments, imprisonment
is now a disability, by reason of such :person or sonic one. or
more of such persons being imprisoned at the time (A such
eause of action or suit accrued.

6. Where such cause of action or suit with respect to which
the period of limitation is fixed by the enactments aforesaid
or any of them lies against two or more joint debtors, tile
person who is entitled to the same shall not be entitled to any
time within which to commence and sue any such action or
suit against any one or more of such joint debtors who is or
are not absent from the Co)ony at the time such cause of action
or suit accrued, by reason only that some other one or more
of such Pint debtors was or were at the lime such cause ol'
action accrued so absent; and such person so entitled as afore-
said shall not be barred from conimencing and suing any.action
or suit against the joint debtor or joint debtors who was or
were so absent at the time the cause of action or suit acertied
after his or their return to the Colony, by reason only that
judgment was already recovered against any one or more of
such joint debtors who was not or were not absent at the time
aforesaid.

7. In reference to the provisions of sections 1 and 8 of the
Act 9 George 4, chapter 14, (the Statute of Frauds Amend-
ment Act, 1828), and section 24 Of the said Act 16 & 17
Victoria, chapter 113, an acknowledgment or promise made or
contained by or in a writing signed by an agent of the party
chargeable thereby, duly authorized to make such acknowledg-
ment or promise, shall have the same effect as if such writing
had been signed by such party himself.

8. In reference to the provisions of the said section 3 of
thl. Act 21 James 1, chapter 16, the said section 3 of the Act
3 & 4 William 4, chapter 42, and the said section 20 of the
Act 16 & 17 Victoria, chapter 113, when there are two or more
co-contractors or co-debtors, whether bound or liable jointly
only or jointly and severally, or executors or administrators of
any contractor, no such co-contractor or co-debtor, or executor
or administrator, shall lose the benefit of the said enactments,
or any of them, so as to be chargeable in respect or by reason
only of payment of any principal, interest, or other money

by any,other of such co-contractors or co-debtors or executors
or administrators.

[s. 9, rep. No. 50 of 1911.]

[Originally No. 13 of 1864.] Short title. Consideration for guarantee need not appear by writing. 19 & 20 Vict. c . 97, s. 3. Right of surety who discharges liability to assignment of all securities held by creditor. 19 & 20 Vict. c. 97, s. 5. Limitation of actions for merchants' accounts. 19 & 20 Vict. c. 97, s. 9. Certain periods of limitation of actions and suits not to be extended by absence from the Colony or imprisonment of person entitled. 19 & 20 Vict. c. 97. Period of limitation to run as to joint debtors I the Colony, though some absent. 19 & 20 Vict. c. 97, s. 11. Extension of certain enactments to acknowledgment by agent. 19 & 20 Vict. c. 97, s. 13. Saving of benefit of statute to contractor or debtor whose co-contractor or co-debtor makes payments. 19 & 20 Vict. c. 97 s. 14.

[Originally No. 13 of 1864.] Short title. Consideration for guarantee need not appear by writing. 19 & 20 Vict. c . 97, s. 3. Right of surety who discharges liability to assignment of all securities held by creditor. 19 & 20 Vict. c. 97, s. 5. Limitation of actions for merchants' accounts. 19 & 20 Vict. c. 97, s. 9. Certain periods of limitation of actions and suits not to be extended by absence from the Colony or imprisonment of person entitled. 19 & 20 Vict. c. 97. Period of limitation to run as to joint debtors I the Colony, though some absent. 19 & 20 Vict. c. 97, s. 11. Extension of certain enactments to acknowledgment by agent. 19 & 20 Vict. c. 97, s. 13. Saving of benefit of statute to contractor or debtor whose co-contractor or co-debtor makes payments. 19 & 20 Vict. c. 97 s. 14.

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