Effect of Death upon the Rights of Creditors.-Courts.

10. Effect of Death upon the Rights of Creditors.

The estates of deceased persons are administered under the direction and revision of Probate Courts, established in each county. (a)

The real estate of a deceased person may be sold for the discharge of his debts, but it is in no manner bound or affected by any judgment against his executor or administrator. (b)

Where the estate of a deceased person is insolvent, it will be distributed equally by the executor or administrator, among all creditors, whose claims have been allowed by two or more commissioners appointed by the judges of the Probate Court-debts to the state or the United States, expenses of funeral and last sickness, debts due for taxes and expenses of settlement, being first paid. (c)

11. Courts.

Original jurisdiction in civil causes is invested in District Courts, which are held in the spring and fall in each county of the state. The judges of the District Court constitute a Supreme Court, having appellate jurisdiction.

(a) R. S. 212.

(b) Ib. 212.

(c) Ib. 303.

Assignability of.-All bonds, bills and notes for the payment of money, are rendered negotiable and may be assigned, so as to vest the assignee with the right of action therein. (a)

But a suit cannot be brought upon any negotiable instrument against an indorser, without first suing the principal, unless the institution of such suit would have been unavailing, or the maker had absconded, or left the state, when the assigned instrument become due.

Rate of damages upon protested bills of exchange.-Five per cent. as damages, besides interest and charges of protest, are allowed upon all foreign bills duly protested for non-acceptance or non-payment.

2. Interest.

Six per cent. is the rate of interest established by law, but the parties may contract for ten per cent.

(a) Acts of 1839.

Limited Partnerships. Effect of Marriage on the Rights of Property, etc.

3. Limited Partnerships.

Limited partnerships are authorized under similar qualifications to those enumerated under the title, Wisconsin."

4. Effect of Marriage upon Rights of Property.

The real estate of a married woman, possessed before coverture, or acquired after coverture in her own name, and as her own property, from any other source than the gift or purchase of her husband, is not liable for his debts. (")

5. Statute of Frauds.

The English statute of frauds is substantially re-enacted. (b) No bill of sale or other conveyance of personal property, where the vendor shall retain the actual possession of the property so conveyed, can pass any right to such property against existing creditors or subsequent purchasers without notice, unless such instrument be acknowledged before some justice of the peace for the county where the same is executed, and recorded in the office of the recorder of deeds for the county where the holder of the property resides. (c)

6. Corporations.

Under the constitution of Iowa, the real and personal property of the stockholders of any corporation, created after its adoption, are rendered liable for the debts of such corporation.

7. Limitation of Actions.

The statute of limitation of personal actions is believed to be the same as that of Michigan.

(a) Acts of 1846, 4.

(b) Acts of 1840, 76.

(c) Ib.

Imprisonment for Debt.-Judgment and Execution.

8. Imprisonment for Debt.

No person can be arrested, held to bail, or imprisoned upon any original, mesne, or final process or execution, issued in any civil suit. (a)

9. Judgment and Execution.

Judgments have the operation of a lien upon the real estate of the defendant, situate in the county, where the judgment has been rendered, from the day of the rendition thereof till after the expiration of ten years. A duly attested copy of such judgment, if filed and recorded in the office of the District Court of any other county, will give to it the same operation as a lien, as if it had been originally rendered in such county; but no execution is to issue upon such attested copy. No judgment shall have the effect of a lien upon any equitable interest of the debtor in real estate, unless such interest appears of record in the county where the real estate is situate. (b)

The personal and real estate of a debtor, including his equitable and possessory interest in lands, may be taken and sold under execution. But unless personally authorized by the debtor to do otherwise, it is the duty of the officer to seize and sell the personal estate in the first instance. Where real estate has been sold under execution, the debtor may redeem the same within one year from the sale, by paying to the clerk of the court, for the use of the purchaser, the amount of the purchase money with ten per cent. per annum added thereto. If not redeemed within this time by the defendant, it may be redeemed within three months by any judgment creditor of the debtor upon the same terms. (c)

Executions issued from any court of record are returnable within seventy days from the date of the same; except that where the execution is issued to any other county than that in which the judgment was rendered, there shall be one additional day for every twenty miles of distance between the seats of the two counties. (d)

(a) Acts of 1844, 22.

(e) Acts of 1849, 197; and 1846, 32.

(b) Acts of 1840, 76; and 1846, 33.

(d) Acts of 1839.

Attachment.-Miscellanies.

When a judgment is obtained in any of the District Courts against a person for a sum exceeding one hundred dollars, he may obtain a stay of execution by procuring one or more sufficient securities to acknowledge him or themselves as bail for the payment of such judgment with interest and costs.

10. Attachment.

In actions founded upon contract, an attachment may be issued upon the affidavit of the creditor or his agent, setting forth, either that the debtor is a non-resident of the state, or that he is about to remove or dispose of his property with intent to defraud his creditors, or that he has absconded, so that the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon him. Before the writ is issued, the plaintiff must enter into bond, with sufficient sureties, to be filed in the clerk's office, conditioned to pay all damages which the defendant may sustain by reason of the attachment. If the defendant desires to contest the allegations of the affidavit, he may have a trial of the same by a jury, and if it is found in his favor the attachment will be dissolved.

11. Miscellanies.

The organization of courts, the administration of estates, and other provisions of general interest, are substantially similar to those of Wisconsin.