Samuel Freeman Miller

“ How Nightingale could have pleaded the statute successfully under such circumstances we do not see. In short, we see no way, in accordance with any known principles of dealing with the statute of limitations, that the plaintiff can, in this collateral proceeding, make use of the statute as a positive weapon of attack to set aside a decree rendered by a court of competent jurisdiction, with proper parties before it, under which the title has passed by a judicial sale of third persons. ”

“ The right to plead the statute of limitations has been always held to be a personal privilege, of which the debtor could avail himself or not, as he might choose. See Pittman's Adm'x v. Elder, in the supreme court of Georgia, March term, 1886. It is true there are some authorities which go to show that a purchaser with the legal title, whose right accrued subsequent to the debt which may be barred by the statute, can also avail himself of the statute when he is sued to foreclose this equity of redemption. ”

“ The value of the slaves was adjusted on some fair basis, and corresponding deduction was made on that account, so that the sum of $51,250, which was yet due on the mortgage, was in every sense an honorable and just debt which Nightingale owed to the estate of Molyneux, and a plea of the statute of limitation to that debt, if it could have been sustained after the payments made upon it within the period of limitation, would have been an unjust exercise of his right to make such a plea, which could only result in favor of the plaintiff, Nightingale. ”