NORTH CAROLINA. Constitution adopted, 1835.-Square Miles, 43,800.-Population in 1850, 868,870. No mortgage of any estate, whether real or personal, shall be good and available in law against creditors or purchasers for a valuable consideration, unless the same shall have been proved and registered within six months after the execution of such mortgage. No deed of trust, or mortgage for real or personal estate, shall be valid at law to pass any property as against creditors or purchasers, for a valuable consideration from the donor, bargainer, or mortgager, but from the registration of such deed of trust or mortgage, in the County where the land lies, or in case of chattels, where the donor, bargainer, or mortgager, resides; or, in case the donor, bargainer, or mortgager, shall reside out of the state, then in the county where the said chattels or some of them are situate. Law regulating Contracts. ALL contracts to sell or convey any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, or interest in or concerning them, or any slave or slaves, shall be void unless such contract or some memorandum or note thereof, shall be put in writing, signed by the party to be charged therewith, or by some other person by him thereunto lawfully authorized, except leases not exceeding the term of three years. No action shall be brought whereby to charge any executor or administrator upon a special promise to answer damages out of his own estate, or to charge the defendant upon any special promise to answer for the debt, default, or miscarriage of another person, unless the agreement upon which such action shall be brought, or some memorandum or note thereof, shall be in writing, and signed by the party to be charged therewith, or by some person thereunto by him lawfully authorized. Limitation of Actions. PERSONS having a right to lands must make claim within seven years next after the right accrued, except minors, married women, and persons insane, who may have three years after the removal of their disability, and persons beyond seas eight years after their right accrued. All actions of account rendered, upon the case, of debt for arrearages of rent, of debt upon simple contract, of detinue, replevin, and trespass, either for goods and chattels, or quare clausum fregit, within three years. Trespass, of assault and battery, wounding, imprisonment, within one year. Infants, married women, insane, and persons beyond sea, have the same periods after the removal of their disability. Collection of Debts. ATTACHMENT.-Upon any complaint being made on oath to any of the judges of the supreme or superior courts, or to any justice of any of the county courts, by any person, his attorney, agent, or factor, that any person [indebted to him] has removed or is removing out of the county privately, or so absents or conceals himself that the ordinary process of law can not be served on such debtor, and further swears to the amount of his debt or demand to the best of his knowledge and belief, an attachment may issue against the estate of such debtor, wherever the same may be found. An attachment may also issue in favor of a resident of this state against the estate of a non-resident. Deeds. DEEDS must be acknowledged by the grantor before one of the judges of the supreme court, or of the superior court, or in the court of the county where the land lies, and regis tered by the public register of the county where the land lies, within two years from the date of the deed. Residents in any of the other states, or in the territories, or in the District of Columbia, may acknowledge them before some one of the judges of supreme jurisdiction, or of the superior courts of law, or circuit courts of law of superior jurisdiction within said state, territory, or district, and an attestation of such acknowledgment endorsed or affixed to the deed by the judges, and a certificate of the governor of the state or territory, or if in the District of Columbia, a certificate of the secretary of state of the United States, that the judge before whom said acknowledgment was taken, was at the time of making the same One of the judges of the courts of supreme jurisdiction, or of the supreme courts of law, or circuit courts of law of superior jurisdiction within said state, territory, or district, shall also be affixed, or before any commissioner appointed by the governor of the state, and certified by him as by law required. Conveyances by husband and wife must be by them personally acknowledged before one of the judges of the supreme or superior courts, or in the court of the county where the land lies, the wife being first privily examined by such judge, whether she doth voluntarily assent thereto. A scrawl of the pen may be used instead of a seal. Rights of Married Women. WHENEVER a marriage shall take place, all the lands or real estate owned by the femme coverte at the time of the marriage, and all lands or real estate which she may subsequently acquire, by will, devise, inheritance, or otherwise, shall not be subject to be sold or leased by the husband for the term of his own life, or any less term of years, except by and with the consent of his wife first had and obtained, to be ascertained and effectuated by privy examination, according to the rules now required by law for the sale of lands by deed belonging to femme covertes. And further, that no interest of the husband whatever, in such lands or real estate, shall be subject to sale to satisfy any execution obtained against him, and all such sales are declared to be null and void both at law and in equity. DOWER.-The widow is endowed of one third part of all the lands, tenements, and hereditaments, of which her husband died seized and possessed. The dower of a widow shall not be subject to the payment of debts due from the estate or her husband, during the term of her life. Rate of Interest. THE legal rate is six per cent. All contracts whereby a higher rate is reserved are void, and the party exacting it is liable to forfett double the amount of the debt, one half to the state, one half to the prosecutor. Wills. THE will must be written in the testator's lifetime, and signed by him or by some other person in his presence and by his direction, and subscribed in his presence by two witnesses, no one of whom shall be interested in the devise. Or, if found among his papers must be in his own handwriting, and his name subscribed thereto, or inscribed in some part thereof, and the handwriting generally known by his acquaintances, and proved by three witnesses to be every part in the testator's own handwriting. No will in writing whereby personal estate is bequeathed, shall be sufficient to convey or give the same, unless such will be executed with the same formalities as are required in the execution of wills of real estate; provided, nevertheless, that the provisions of this act shall not be construed to affect nuncupative wills. No will in writing, made after 1846, which shall not be sufficient to convey or give personal estate, shall be good as to any real estate therein devised. |