Horace Harmon Lurton

“ The principle was applied to a distiller's bond, where one of the defenses was that the bond was invalid. The court said:
'But we prefer to place our judgment upon the broader ground marked out by the adjudications of this court, to which we have referred. Everyone is presumed to know the law. Ignorance, standing alone, can never be the basis of a legal right. If a bond is liable to the objection taken in this case and the parties are dissatisfied, the objection should be made when the bond is presented for execution. If executed under constraint, the constraint will destroy it. ”

“ The proceeds which Waggaman received are either the funds of the beneficial owners of the property, or, if the sale be in fact void so far as to confer no title, the purchaser, in equity and justice, must be protected before the money is distributed. The benefit which Waggaman expected to secure, he has been enabled to enjoy through the voluntary execution of this bond by Clarke as his surety. That bond recites his due appointment, and it would be inequitable and unjust to permit either the principal or his surety to deny the fact. ”

“ Henry Hine, now of Boston Spa, Yorkshire, England, if he then be living, be not being then living, to my mother, Amelia Burnett Hine, neither of them being then living, to my sister Amelia Burnett Hine, and the residue shall be equally divided between my brothers and sisters, share and share alike. If neither parent, nor my sister Amelia Burnett Hine, outlives my said wife, then the whole net proceeds of the sale of my real estate, shall be equally divided between my brothers and sisters. ”

“ But where it is voluntarily entered into and the principal enjoys the benefits which it is intended to secure and a breach occurs, it is then too late to raise the question of its validity. The parties are estopped from availing themselves of such a defense. ”

“ Whereas the said Thomas E. Waggaman has been duly appointed trustee to make sale of the real estate in the proceedings in this cause mentioned.
Now the condition of the above obligation is such, that if the above bounden Thomas E. Waggaman shall well and truly discharge the duties devolving upon him as such trustee, and shall in all things obey such order and decree as this court shall make in the premises, then the above obligation to be void and of no effect; else to be in full force and virtue. ”