by John Marshall Harlan

“ The fairinference is that the railroad company negotiated the bonds abroad, and made them payable in that city, in order to facilitate a sale of them to foreign buyers. Every circumstance connected with the contract tends to show that the parties intended that all questions in respect to performance, or the legal consequences of a failure to perform, were to be determined by the law of the place, and the only place, where the obligation to make payment could be discharged, and where the breach of that obligation would occur if payment was not made at the appointed time and place. ”

“ The court also based its judgment in part upon an Illinois statute providing that when any contract or loan is made in that state, or between its citizens and the citizens of any other state or country, bearing interest at a rate that was legal in Illinois, it should be lawful to make the principal and interest payable in any other state or territory, or in London, in which case the contract or loan should be deemed and considered as governed by the laws of Illinois, and not be affected by the laws of the place where it was to be performed. ”

“ It is not an unreasonable presumption, in view of all the circumstances, that in some way, not disclosed by the evidence, those coupons were settled, or treated as settled, when the railroad company commenced, in 1869, to pay, and the appellant received, interest on the bonds as if exchanged for new bonds of £600 and £300. ”