Marshal v. Williams's executor, 3 N.C. 405, 2 Hayw. 405 (1806)

April 1806 · North Carolina Superior Court
3 N.C. 405, 2 Hayw. 405

Marshal vs. Williams's executor.

'tpIKS bill in equity stated that sometime prior to the 25th -*■ cember, l'/89, the complainant borrowed of the defendant’s testator, £ 25, Virginia money, and gave him a bill of sale Cor a* *406Negro man, with an endorsement stating that if the £ 25, with interest should be repaid on the 25th ol'Deceinber, 1789, the bill of sale should be void; but if not paid with interest on that day, then Williams should be entitled to the Negro and a further bill of sale, and should pay £ 10 more in addition to the £ 25 ; and that if the Negro should die in the mean lime, the loss should be the complainants; that the £ 25 and interest was tendered on the 29ih of December, 1789, and Williams refused to receive it» This bill was filed about ten years afterwards.

Plummer and Browne, for the defendants,

insisted this was a conditional sale, and that on the non-payment of the sum borrowed, and interest, until the 26\h December, 1789, the testator was to be considered as the absolute proprietor, but bound to pay the £ 10. They cited Call’s Re. E contra, was cited 2 Vern. 188.

Per curiam.

A conditional sale is when at the time of the contract the absolute property passes to the vendee, but subject to be defeated by paying the sum advanced: the Negro, until the money paid back, belongs to the vendee, and if he dies it is the loss of the vendee ; he is entitled to his services in the interim, and is not entitled to the money advanced for him, and so cannot claim the interest of it: Here the money was loaned, interest was to be paid on it, the Negro, if he died, was to be considered as the propeity of the complainant. He was therefore a pledge for the security of the money; was redeemable; and being once so was always so. He must be delivered up and his yearly value accounted for, deducting from thence the money loaned and the interest; after each value shall be ascertained, interest must be paid on such yearly value from the time it becomes due.