The Radical

ILLINOIS STAY LAW.

The following is an extract from the recent decision of Judge Douglas of Illinois; in which he decided how far the recent decision of the U. S. Supreme Court in the case of Bronson vs. Kinzie goes:

That decision goes upon the principle that the mortgage vests the legal title in the mortgagee, subject to the equity of redemption; that the laws in existence at the time of the execution of the mortgage is part of the contract, prescribing the condition upon which that legal title may be divested or the equity of redemption vested; and that any subsequent law changing that condition, varies the terms of the contract without the consent of the parties. Admitting the correctness of this doctrine as applicable to mortgages, the reason upon which it is founded, does not apply with equal force to ordinary judgments. The mortgage is made a specific lien upon the property by the contract of the parties; the judgment becomes so only by operation of law. This is the extent to which the case of Bronson against Kinzie has determined these laws to be unconstitutional, and beyond this point the Circuit Courts of this State ought not to go so long as our own Supreme Court holds a different doctrine.