Randolph County IL Archives Court.....French, V Creath 1819-31
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Deb Haines http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00003.html#0000719 May 27, 2008, 11:14 pm

Source: Reports Of Cases Illinois
Written: 1819-31

December Term, 1820, Vandalia

Joseph French, Appellant, v. John R. Creath, by George Creath, his next 
friend, Appellee.

Appeal from Randolph.

An order of the court below, appointing the next friend of an infant plaintiff 
is not necessary. (1.)[Vide Laws of 1831, entitled "An Act to amend an act, 
entitled an act concerning practice in courts of law," approved January 29, 
1827.] 

An action for slander is not taken away, though the statute creating the 
offense charged, be repealed, (2.)

John R. Creath, an infant under the age of twenty-one years, by George Creath, 
his father and next friend, brought an action, in the circuit court of 
Jackson, and removed by change of venue to Randolph, against Joseph French, 
for slander. On the trial a verdict was found for plaintiff, and a motion made 
by defendant for a new trial, and in arrest of judgment, which were overruled, 
and an appeal taken to this court where it was assigned for error, 1. That 
there was no order of the court below, appointing the next friend of the 
infant plaintiff; and 2. That the slanderous words spoken, charged the 
plaintiff with the commission of the crime in 1815, and as the law creating 
the offense with which he was charged, is repealed, no words spoken in 
relation to that crime are actionable.

Opinion of the Court. We are of opinion, that the judgment of the court below 
ought to be affirmed. It is now too late to make the objection first stated, 
and as to the second there is no clearer principle that the action is not 
barred, because the statute creating the offense has been repealed. If the 
words spoken, had charged an offense to have been committed in another state, 
which is not punishable here, still they would be actionable. (a) 

Judgment affirmed.

Starr, for appellant.

Kane, for appellee.

-----------------------
(1.) In Robb v. Smith, 3 Scam., 46, it was said by the court in argument, that 
where a suit was brought by an infant and the infancy was pleaded in 
abatement, the plaintiff might amend by inserting the name of a prochein amy. 
The same was also held in Blood v. Harrington, 8 Pick., 552. This case is 
cited and approved in Heslep et al v. Peters, 3 Scam., 45. And in a recent 
case the court held that "It is not necessary that there should be a guardian, 
or prochein amy, for a minor at the time of suing out the process. If it were 
otherwise, the exception should be taken before pleading to the merits." 
Stumps v. Kelley, 22 Ill., 140.

(2.) An action for slander will lie for charging the plaintiff with a crime, 
the prosecution of which has been barred by the statute of limitations. Von 
Ankin v. Westfall, 14 Johns., 233.

The repeal of a statute does not affect rights acquired under the repealed 
statute. Naught v. Oneal, post.

(a) An offense against a temporary statute cannot be punished after the 
expiration of the act, unless a particular provision by laws be made for that 
purpose. 7 Wheat., 531. One guilty of perjury in proceedings under the 
bankrupt laws, cannot be prosecuted for the offense, after the repeal of the 
law. United States v Passmore, 4 Dall., 372.

Additional Comments:
Reports of Cases at Common Law and in Chancery, Argued and Determined in the 
Supreme Court of the State of Illinois, From its First Organization in 1819, 
to the End of December Term, 1831. By Sidney Breese, Counsellor at Law. Second 
Edition, with Additional Notes, By Edwin Beecher. Chicago: Callaghan & 
Company, 1877.

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