Stanley Matthews

“ At common law actual payment of a debt of record could not be pleaded in bar of an action for the recovery of the debt. This has been changed by statute both in England and in this country, and no reason can be assigned why an accord and satisfaction should not have the same effect. In the present case the action is not on the decree, but on the appeal-bond, and for the recovery of damages arising from the breach, as to which matters in pais, such as payment or accord and satisfaction, were always a good plea. ”

“ The papers in evidence established a complete accord and satisfaction fully performed, in pursuance of an agreement to extinguish the liability of the defendants by reason of the original decree, and so to satisfy the obligation of the bond on which they are sued. The right of the defendants to appeal from the decree, and the fact that they had declared their intention to do so, created such a dispute in respect to their liability as made it a proper subject of compromise. ”

“ The offer on the part of the plaintiffs in error to prove by parol another condition of the contract, viz., that the other defendants, the owners of the steam-boat Sabine, and the intervenors and other parties, the several insurance companies who had become parties to the appeal, should not take and perfect an appeal to the supreme court of the United States, was rightly rejected, because such parol evidence necessarily varied and contradicted the written agreement of the parties. ”