The points made by the defendant before the rendition of judgment against him need be noticed only briefly.
1. If the plaintiff corporation has been dissolved and there is no provision of law by which the debts owing to it can be collected, of course the plaintiff must fail. Fox v. Horah, 1 Ire. Eq. 358. But we think that is not the result of the Act of the Legislature of South Carolina to which we were referred, *172or of the action of the Oiicuit Court of that State. The corporation has been declared insolvent and put in liquidation ; to some extent the exercise of its corporate privileges has been prohibited; but the interest and object of the whole proceeding is to keep it alive until its assets have been collected and distributed under the superintendence of the Court.
2. The C. C. P., Sec. 299, allows an appeal to this Court from an order of the Superior Court granting or refusing a new trial, and if it appeared that a continuance had been refused to a party when, in law, he was entitled to it,-or when the refusal was manifestly unjust and oppressive, and merits were shown, perhaps this Court might grant grant a new trial on that ground. But neither of those was the case here. The junction of Baldwin’s name with the Bank as plaintiff was no surprise to the defendant, for notice of an intention to do so had been given at a previous term. The amendment did not in any way alter the defense; or require or permit any change in the pleading. No separate right was claimed ¡for Baldwip. He was made a party as receiver, and merely to note to whom the recovery, if obtained, would be payable. As to the reasons for a continuance grounded on the absence of the defendant, &c., evidently his Honor was a much better judge of them than we can be. And even if, in any case, we had the right to revise his discretion, it must certainly be one of plain and palpable error, to justify ns in undertaking to do so. Nothing of that sort appears here.
3. The principal question is upon the motion of the defendant, that satisfaction of the judgment be entered on his paying into Court the amount of the judgment in the bills of the plaintiff, Bank. The Judge declined to allow it. In this we think the Judge erred.
At the close of the war it appeared that most, if not all, of the Banks of the Southern States, were unable to redeem their bills in lawful money, and that consequently they were depreciated, not only below their face value, but in some eases *173below wbat might be paid on them it the assets of the Bank were faithfully applied to their redemption. This state ®f things offered a field tor the Banks and their officers, who alone could know the extent of the assets and the actual value of the bills, to buy them up at depressed prices, while they were collecting the debts dpe to them in lawful money. Under these circumstances, it seemed to the Legislature a wise policy to allow the debtors of the Banks to set-off the bills of the Banks against their indebtedness.
In this view the acts of 22d of August, 1868, and of 17th March. 1869, (acts 1868-9, ch. 77) and of 13th December, 1869, (acts of 1869-70, ch. 4) were passed. The two first acts applied to Banks generally. The last, by which the right claimed by defendant in this case is given, is confined in its terms to Banks chartered by this State, and the plaintiff contends that it cannot by legitimate construction be extended to it. He also contends that the whole of this legislation, both as to domestic and foreign Banks, is unconstitutional, as impairing the obligation of contracts. Certainly if this last position he correct as respects foreign Banks, it will equally hold with respect to domestic ones. Eor the Legislature has no more right to impair the obligation of a contract made wfith one than the other class of Banks. But it does not seem to us that the legislation in question is open to this objection. The doctrine of set-off has long had a place in the law. And although, under the practice before the acts in question, a defendant could only plead as a set-off a debt of the plaintiff owing to him at the commencement of the action, yet this was not by reason of any unchangeable principle of justice, but arose out of the rules of pleading. Eor if a defendant, whose claim was rejected under his plea of set-off, could obtain a judgment on it in a separate action before payment of the judgment against him, the Court would set-off the two judgments and allow execution for the excess only. The law of set-off was a part of the law of the remedy, and consequently within the power of the Leg*174islature to change at its pleasure, by prescribing the time or stage of the plaintiff’s action at which it should'be available.
That is all that the Legislature has done. It does not deny to the plaintiff the full obligation of the contract to him; it only says to him you must also perform the contract you have made. Mann v. Blount, 65, N. C. 99. Bank of Charlotte v. Hart, at this term.
As to the application of the act of 1869 to foreign Ranks suing in this State, corporations created in one country can sue in the Courts of another country by comity only. Bank of U. S. v. Earle, 13 Pet. 519. The Legislature may deny to a foreign corporation that right, or may impose conditions on its exercise.
It would be a strange’policy for a State to allow to a foreign Bank, suing in its Courts, privileges denied to its own. We think that, by a proper construction of the act of 1869, all Banks suing a citizen of this State in the Courts of this State must be regarded in that suit as chartered by this State, for their charter and corporate existence is recognized by the law of this State for’the purposes of the suit. The former acts include foreign Banks in their general terms. All three of them however aveinpari materia, parts of the same general policy, and must receive a similar construction. Judgment below affirmed and on payment of the bills of the plaintiff into Court. Let satisfaction be entered in this Court.
Per Curiam. Judgment accordingly. •