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INDIANA.

Constitution adopted, 1851.-Square Miles, 33,809.-Population in 1850, 988,734.

Exemptions.

Mechanics' Lien.

ALL persons performing labor on or furnishing materials for the construction of any [new] building, or repair of any building, under any contract entered into with the owner, and not with the tenant, may have a lien on the same for his services or materials, or both.

Sub-contractors and laborers, giving notice to the owner of their claim, may make him liable for it, if he be indebted to their employer in that amount; if not, then to the amount due from the owner to their employer.

Within sixty days after the completion of the building or repairs, notice of the intention to hold a lien on the property, specifying the amount claimed, must be filed in the recorder's office of the county.

Lien may be enforced by filing a bill in chancery.

Boats and vessels of all descriptions built, repaired, or equipped, within the jurisdiction of this state, and those built, repaired, or equipped, out of such jurisdiction, by citizens of this state, who shall afterward come within such jurisdiction, shall be liable for all debts contracted by the master, owner, or consignee thereof, on account of work done and supplies or materials furnished by any person for, on account of, or toward the building, repairing, fitting, furnishing, or equipping such boats or vessels; and the debts so contracted shall be a lien on such boats or vessels, their tackle, apparel, and furniture, and shall have preference to any and all debts due from the owners, masters, or consignees thereof, except mariners' and boatmen's wages.

Attachment may issue to enforce such lien.

After a boat or vessel of any description shall have started on her voyage, if any person shall sell to the captain, commandant, master, consignee, or any officer of said boat or vessel, materials for her repair or equipment, or wood or coal for fuel, or provisions to be made use of by the crew or passengers during said voyage, or any articles not being freight or cargo, and which are designed merely to enable said boat or vessel to prosecute her voyage, said person making affidavit of the truth and justice of his demand, shall have the same remedy.

Boatmen and mariners, for their wages, may proceed under these provisions

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Chattel Mortgages.

No assignment of goods and chattels, by way of mortgage or security, or upon any condition whatever, shall be valid against any other person than the parties thereto, where the possession of such goods and chattels is not delivered to the mortgagee or assignee, and retained by him, unless such assignment shall be proved or acknowledged as provided in cases of deeds of conveyance, and recorded in the recorder's office of the county where the mortgager or assignor resides, within ten days after the execution thereof.

Law regulating Contracts.

No action shall be brought

1. To charge an executor or administrator, upon a special promise, to answer damages out of his own estate; or

2. To charge any person, upon any special promise, to answer for the debt, default, or miscarriage, of another; or

3. To charge any person upon any agreement or promise made in consideration of marriage; or

4. To charge any person upon any contract for the sale of lands, tenements, or hereditaments, or any interest in or concerning them; or

5 Upon any agreement that is not to be performed within one year from the making thereof; unless the promise, contract, or agreement, upon which such action shall be brought, or some memorandum or note thereof, shall be in writing, and signed by the party to be charged therewith, or by some person thereunto by him lawfully authorized, excepting leases not exceeding the term of three years.

The consideration need not be expressed in the writing.

No action shall be maintained to charge any person upon or by reason of any representation or assurance made concerning the character, conduct, credit, ability, trade, or dealings, of any other person, when such action is brought by the person to whom such representation or assurance was made, unless such representation or assurance be made in writing, and signed by the party to be charged thereby, or by some person thereunto by him lawfully authorized.

No contract for the sale of any goods, wares, or merchandise, for the price of fifty dollars or more, shall be good or valid, unless the purchaser shall accept and receive part of such property so sold, or shall give something in earnest to bind the bargain or in part payment, or unless some note or memorandum in writing of the bargain be made and signed by the party to be charged thereby, or by some person thereunto by him lawfully authorized.

Limitation of Actions.

THE following actions shall be commenced within six years next after the cause of action shall accrue :

1. All actions of debt founded upon any contract or liability, except as provided in the next section.

2. All actions upon judgments rendered before a justice of the peace, or in any court not being a court of record.

3. All actions for arrears of rent.

4. All actions of assumpsit, or upon the case, founded on a contract or liability, express or implied, except as provided in the next section.

5. All actions for waste and for trespass upon land.

6 All actions of replevin, and for taking, detaining, or injuring, goods or chat. tels.

7. All other actions on the case, except actions for slanderous words and for libels.

None of the provisions of the foregoing section shall apply to any action brought upon any bond, promissory note, or contract in writing, nor to any action brought upon any bills, notes, or other evidences of debt, issued by any bank, where the suit is against such bank, nor to any action brought on the judgment or decree of any court of record of this state or of the United States, or of any state or territory of the United States.

All actions for assault and battery, and for false imprisonment, shall be commenced within three years.

All actions for slanderous words, and for libels, shall be commenced within one year.

In all actions of debt or assumpsit, where there are mutual and open accounts current between the parties, the cause of action shall be deemed to have accrued at the time of the last item proved in such account.

All personal actions on any contract not limited above shall be brought within twenty years after the accruing of the cause of action.

Minors, married women, persons insane, imprisoned, or absent from the United States, may bring action within one year after the disability is removed. Absence from the state of the defendant is not to be computed.

Actions for the recovery of lands must be brought within twenty years.

A widow shall not recover dower after the expiration of twenty years from the death of her husband. If, at the time of his death, she be a minor or insane, the time of such disability is not to be computed.

Collection of Debts.

ARREST.-Actions brought for the recovery of any debt, or for damages only, may be commenced either by the issuing of a capias ad respondendum or by a

summons.

Special bail shall not be required in any case until the plaintiff, his agent or attorney-at-law, shall make and file, with the clerk or court where suit is instituted, an affidavit specifying the plaintiff's rights to recover an existing debt or damages from the defendant, and also stating that he believes the defendant is about to leave the state of Indiana, taking with him property subject to execution, or money or effects which should be applied to the payment of the plaintiff's debt or damages, with intent to defraud said plaintiff.

No capias ad respondendum shall be delivered to any officer to be executed until an order for special bail has been obtained and endorsed on such writ.

ATTACHMENT.-The real and personal property of a debtor, being an inhabitant of this state, may be attached for the payment of his debts, whenever such debtor shall be secretly leaving the state, or shall have left the state, with intent to defraud his creditors, or to avoid the service of civil process, or shall keep himself concealed so that process can not be served upon him, with intent to delay or defraud his creditors.

No writ of attachment shall issue against any debtor while the wife and family of such debtor shall be and remain bona fide settled within the county where his usual place of residence may have been prior to his absence, if such debtor shall not continue absent from the state more than one year after he shall have absented himself, unless an attempt shall be made to conceal such debtor's absence, or unless such debtor shall be secretly transferring, conveying, or removing his property or effects, by which the payment of his debts may be evaded.

If the wife or family of such debtor shall refuse to give an account of the cause of his absence, or of the place where he may be, or shall give a false account of either, or shall be unable to account for his absence, or to tell where he may be found, such refusal, false accounts, or inability to account for his absence, or to tell where he may be found, shall be deemed and construed an attempt to conceal his

absence.

Deeds.

A SCRAWL of the pen may be used fur a seal.

To entitle any deed, conveyance, mortgage, or instrument in writing, to be recorded, it shall be acknowledged by the party or parties executing the same, or shall be proved by a subscribing witness thereto, &c., before any supreme judge, judge of a circuit court, justice of the peace, recorder, notary public, or mayor of a city, within this state, or before any judge of a supreme or circuit court or court of common pleas, justice of the peace, or mayor or recorder of a city, or notary public of any other state, or before any commissioner appointed by the governor of this state in another state for such purpose, or before any minister. chargé d'affaires, or consul of the United States, in any foreign country.

State of Indiana,

Form of Acknowledgment.

County of Harrison, to wit:

Be it remembered, that on this tenth day of October, one thousand eight hundred and fifty, before me, JOHN JONES, a notary public in and for said county, personally appeared JOHN DOE and SUSAN his wife, and severally acknowl edged the foregoing instrument to be their act and deed; and the said SUSAN, on a private examination, separate and apart from and without the hearing of her husband, I having first freely made known to her the contents and purport thereof, acknowledged to me that she executed the same of her own free will and accord, and without any coercion or compulsion from her said husband. Witness my hand and notarial seal of office, the day and year first above written.

(Seal.) JOHN JONES, Notary Public.

The acknowledgment of the execution of any deed or conveyance by which a married woman releases her dower in any lands conveyed or assigned by her husband, or by which the husband and wife convey the real estate of the wife, may be taken before any officer herein authorized to take the acknowledgment of deeds; but such officer shall first make known to her the contents and purport of such deed or conveyance, and she acknowledge on a private examination, separate and apart from, and without the hearing of her husband, that she executed such deed or conveyance of her own free will and accord, and without any coercion or compulsion from her husband; all of which shall be certified by such officer in his certificate of such acknowledgment.

Without such acknowledgment and certificate, her dower will not be barred, nor her interest conveyed.

The deed must be recorded in the county where the land is situate, within ninety days. It is better to record it at once.

Rights of Married Women.

No real estate whereof any married woman was or may be seized or other wise entitled to, at the time of her marriage, or which she has or may fairly acquire during her coverture, or any interest therein, shall be liable for the debts of her husband; but the same, and all interest therein, and all rents and profits arising therefrom, shall be deemed and taken to be her separate property, free and clear from any and all claim or claims of the creditors or legal representatives of her husband, as fully as if she had never been married; provided this law shall not be so construed as to apply to debts contracted by such married woman before such marriage, but in all cases her said property shall be first liable there

for.

DOWER.-The widow shall be endowed of one full and equal third part of all

the lands the legal title to which was in her husband, or in any person to and for his use and benefit at any time during the coverture, unless such right of dower has been legally barred.

Rate of Interest.

THE legal rate of interest is six per cent. Usurious interest can not be recovered; and if paid, may be recovered back, but usury does not render the entire contract void.

Wills.

THESE must be in writing, and signed by the testator, or by some person in Eis presence and by his express direction, and attested and subscribed in the esence of the testator by two or more competent witnesses.

#o form of attestation, see page 163.

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