STATUTES OF LIMITATION. There appear to have been no times limited by the common law within which actions might be brought ; for though it is said by Bracton (lib. 2, fol. 228), that, " ensues aetiones in mundo infra certa tempera limitatlonem habent ; " yet with the exception of the period of a year and a day, mentioned by Spelman (' Gloss.', 32), as fixed by the ancient law for the heir of a tenant to claim after the death of his ancestor, and for the tenant to make his claim upon a cliaseisor, all the limitations of actions in the English law have been established by statute. Certain remarkable periods were first fixed upon, within which the cause of action must have arisen. Thus in the time of Henry III., the limitations In a writ of right, which was then from the time of Henry I., was by the Statute of Merton, c. 8, reduced to the time of Henry II.; and by the Statute of Westminster, 1, c. 3, the period within which writs of right might he sued out was brought down to the time of Richard I. (Co. Lit., 114 b.) Since the 4 Hen. VII., c. 24, which limited the time within which persons might make their claim to land of which a fine had been levied with proclamations, various statutes have been passed for the purpose of limiting the time within which actions and suits relating to real property may be commenced. The 21 Jac. I., c. 16, enacted generally that no person should make entry into any lands, but within twenty years next after his right of entry accrued.
By the 9 Geo. Ill. c. 16, the right of the crown to sue or implead for any manors, lands, or other hereditatnents (except liberties or franchises) was limited to sixty years. Before this act, the rule that Indium tempts occurrit regi was universal. It still prevails as a maxim where not abridged by statute.
The next statute upon this subject Is the 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 27, by which great changes were made in the remedies for trying the rights to real property, and which embodies the greater part of the present law of limitations relating thereto.
No entry or distress can be made or action brought to recover any land or rent, but within twenty years after the right has accrued to the claimant, or some person through whom he claims.
But persons under the disability of infancy, eoverture, idiotey,lunacy, unsoundness:of mind, or absence beyond seas, or persons claiming under them, notwithstanding the period of twenty years shall have expired, are to be allowed ten years after the person to whom the right first accrued has ceased to be under any disability or has died. Forty years is, however, a complete bar.
No part of Great Britain and Ireland, nor the adjacent islands, is to be deemed beyond seas, within the meaning of this act.
A mortgagee to whom a payment of principal or interest has been made, or an acknowledgment in writing has been given, has twenty years from the time of such payment or acknowledgnaent. (7 Will. IV. and 1 Vict. c. 29.) Arrears of dower, or damages for such arrears, are not recoverable by any action or suit beyond six years before the commencement of the action or suit. Before the act, there was no limitation either at law or in equity to a claim for arrears of dower during the life of the heir. No arrears of rent or of interest in respect of any money charged in any manner on land or rent, or any damages in respect of such arrear of rent or interest, can be recovered but within six years next after the same respectively became due, or next after an acknowledg ment in writing given to the person entitled thereto or his agent, signed by the person by whom the same was payable, or his agent.
'f he rents here dealt with are rents charged upon land only, to which the former statutes did not apply, and not conventional rents, the limitations as to which are provided for by the 21 Jac. c. 16, s. 3, and the 8 & 4 Will. IV. c. 42.
Limitations as to tithes and other ecclesiatical property are now regulated by 2 & 3 Will IV. c. 100, and 3 & 4 Will. IV, c. 27.