LIMITATION, STATUE On account of the frailty of human memory and the uncertainty of such claims, all countries have set a limit upon the time within which rights may be liti gated, called the Statute of Limitations. The statute begins to run when the right is complete, i. e., the money is due and payable subject to certain exceptions in favor of minors, persons beyond seas and non compos menti8, and after it begins to run is not estopped by anything except a payment on account, or an acknowledgment of the debt, accompanied by an express promise to pay it, which, in some States, must be in writing. In either event the debt is said to be revived and the statute begins to run over again from that date. The limitation being regulated by the Legislatures of the various States, differs greatly throughout the United States. New Mexico is the only State without such a statute. As it may be said generally, that claims founded upon instruments in writing, under seal, are not within the statute of any State. The period within which suits must be brought on contracts in writing, like bills and notes; contracts not in writing, like sales of goods evidenced by book accounts, is six years in Colorado, Dakota, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Min nesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ver mont, and Wisconsin. Five years in Montana and Nebraska.
Three years in California, Delaware, Maryland, and North Caro lina. Two years in Nevada. In the other States a difference is made between suits on contracts in writing and on contracts not in writing, as store accounts, in respect to the period of limitation. It is six years in the former case and four years in the latter in Georgia ; six years in the former and three in the latter in Con necticut, District of Columbia, Mississippi, and Washington Ter ritory ; five years in the former and four in the latter in Wyoming Territory ; five years in the former and three in the latter in Kan sas, Louisiana, and West Virginia ; five years in the former and two in the latter in Missouri and Virginia ; four in the former and two in the latter in Idaho, Texas, and Utah.