of the suit, shall be insufficient to satisfy the liens of said parties employed under the original contractor the said proceeds shall be distributed ratably among them to the extent of the payments accruing to the original contractor subsequently to the service of notice on the owner by said parties, as aforesaid.

Sec. 1250. SEVERAL BUILDINGS.-In case of labor done or materials furnished for the erection or repair of two or more buildings joined together and owned by the same person or persons, it shall not be necessary to determine the amount of work done or materials furnished for each separate building, but only the aggregate amount upon all the buildings so joined, and the decree may be for the sale of all the buildings and the land on which they are erected as one building, or they may be sold separately if it shall seem best to the court.

Sec. 1251. WHEN SUIT TO BE COMMENCED.-Any person entitled to a lien, as aforesaid, may commence his suit to enforce the same at any time within a year from and after the filing of the notice aforesaid or within six months from the completion of the building or repairs aforesaid, on his failure to do which the said lien shall cease to exist, unless his said claim be not due at the expiration of said periods, in which case the action must be commenced within three months after the said claim shall have become due.

Sec. 1252. EXTENT OF GROUND BOUND BY LIEN. -If there be any contest as to the dimensions of the ground claimed to be subjected to the lien aforesaid, the court shall determine the same upon the evidence and describe the same in the decree of sale.

Sec. 1253. ENTRY OF SATISFACTION. Whenever any person having a lien by virtue hereof shall have received satisfaction of his claim and cost, he shall, on the demand, and at the cost of the person interested, enter said claim satisfied, in the clerk's office aforesaid, and on his failure or refusal so to do he shall forfeit fifty dollars to the party aggrieved, and all damages that the latter may have sustained by reason of such failure or refusal.

Sec. 1254. PAYMENT INTO COURT AND RELEASE. In any suit to enforce a lien hereunder, the owner of the building and premises to which such lien may have attached, as aforesaid, may be allowed to pay into court the amount claimed by the lienor, and such additional amount, to cover interest and costs, as the court may direct, or he may file a written undertaking, with two or more sureties, to be approved by the court, to the effect that he and they will pay the judgment that may be recovered and costs, which judgment shall be rendered against all the persons so undertaking. On the payment of said money into court, or the approval of such undertaking, the property shall be released from such lien, and any money so paid in shall be subject to the final decree of the court. No such undertaking shall be approved by the court until the complainant shall have had at least two days' notice of the defendant's intention to apply to the court therefor, which notice shall give the names and residences of the persons intended to be offered as sureties and the time when the motion for such approval will be made, and such sureties shall make oath, if required, that they are worth, over and above all debts and liabilities, double the amount of said lien. The complainant may appear and object to such approval.

Sec. 1255. UNDERTAKING TO DISCHARGE LIENS BEFORE SUIT.-Such an undertaking as above mentioned may be offered before any suit brought in order to discharge the property from existing liens, in which case notice shall be given as aforesaid to the parties whose liens it is sought to have discharged, and the same proceedings shall be had as above directed in relation to the undertaking to be given after the commencement of the suit, and said undertaking shall be to the effect that the owner and his said sureties will pay any judgment that may be rendered in any suit that may thereafter be brought for the enforcement of said lien.

Sec. 1256. DECREE AGAINST SURETIES. If such undertaking be approved before any suit brought, such suit shall be a suit in equity against the owner, to which the sureties may be made parties; if the undertaking be approved after suit brought, the said sureties shall ipso facto become parties to the suit, and in either case the decree of the court shall be against the sureties as well as the owner.

Sec. 1257. NO ACTION BY SUBCONTRACTOR AGAINST OWNER.--No subcontractor, material man, or workman employed under the original contractor shall be entitled to a personal judgment or decree against the owner of the premises for the amount due to him from said original contractor, except upon a special promise of such owner, in writing, for a sufficient consideration, to be answerable for the same.

Sec. 1258. JUDGMENT FOR DEFICIENCY UPON A SALE. In any suit brought to enforce a lien by virtue of the provisions aforesaid, if the proceeds of the property affected thereby shall be insufficient to satisfy such lien, a personal judgment for the deficiency may be given in favor of the lien or against the owner of the premises or the original contractor, as the case may be, whichever contracted with him for the labor or materials furnished by him, provided such person be a party to the suit and shall have been personally served with process therein.

Sec. 1259. WHARVES AND LOTS.-Any person who shall furnish materials or labor in filling up any lot or in constructing any wharf thereon, or dredging the channel of the river in front of any wharf, under any contract with the owner, shall be entitled to a lien for the value of such work or materials on said lot and wharf upon the same conditions and to be enforced in the same manner as in the case of work done in the erection of buildings, as hereinbefore provided.

Sec. 1260. OTHER LIENS.-Any mechanic or artisan who shall make, alter, or repair any article of personal property at the request of the owner shall have a lien thereon for his just and reasonable charges for his work done and materials furnished, and may retain the same in his possession until said charges are paid; but if possession is parted with by his consent such lien shall cease.

Sec. 1261. INNKEEPER. Every innkeeper, keeper of a boarding house, or house of private entertainment shall have a lien upon and may retain possession of the baggage and effects of any guest or boarder for the amount which may be due him from such guest for board and lodging until such amount is paid.

Sec. 1262. LIVERYMAN.-It shall be lawful for all persons keeping or boarding any animals at livery within the District, under any agreement with the owner thereof, to detain such animals until all charges

under such agreement for the care, keep, or board of such animals shall have been paid: Provided, however, That notice in writing shall first be given to such owner in person or at his last known place of residence of the amount of such charges and the intention to detain such animal or animals until such charges shall be paid.

Sec. 1263. ENFORCEMENT BY SALE.-If the amount due and for which a lien is given by any of the last three sections is not paid after the end of a month after the same is due, and the property bound by said lien does not exceed the sum of fifty dollars, then the party entitled to such lien, after demand of payment upon the debtor, if he be within the District, may proceed to sell the property so subject to lien at public auction, after giving notice once a week for three successive weeks in some daily newspaper published in the District, and the proceeds of such sale shall be applied, first, to the expenses of such sales and the discharge of such lien, and the remainder, if any, shall be paid over to the owner of the property.

Sec. 1264. ENFORCEMEMT BY BILL IN EQUITY. If the value of the property so subject to lien shall exceed the sum of fifty dollars, the proceeding to enforce such lien shall be by bill or petition in equity, and the decree, which shall be rendered according to the due course of proceedings in equity, besides subjecting the thing upon which the lien was attached to sale for the satisfaction of the plaintiff's demand, shall adjudge that the plaintiff recover his demand against the defendant from whom such claim is due, and may have execution therefor as at law.

CHAPTER XLI.

LIMITATION OF ACTIONS.

Sec. 1265. PERIODS OF LIMITATIONS.-No action shall be brought for the recovery of lands, tenements, or hereditaments after fifteen years from the time the right to maintain such action shall have accrued; nor on any executor's or administrator's bond after five years from the time of the right of action accrued thereon; nor on any other pond or single bill, covenant, or other instrument under seal after twelve years after the accruing of the cause of action thereon; nor upon any simple contract, express or implied, or for the recovery of damages for any injury to real or personal property, or for the recovery of personal property or damages for its unlawful detention after three years from the time when the right to maintain any such action shall have accrued; nor for any statutory penalty or forfeiture, or for libel, slander, assault, battery, mayhem, wounding, malicious prosecution, false arrest or false imprisonment after one year from the time when the right to maintain any such action shall have accrued; and no action the limitation of which is not otherwise specially prescribed in this section shall be brought after three years from the time when the right to maintain such action shall have accrued: Provided, That if any person entitled to maintain any of the actions aforesaid shall be at the time of the accruing of such right of action under twenty-one years of age, non compos mentis, or imprisoned, such person or his proper representative shall be at liberty to bring such action within the respective times in this section limited after the removal of such disability, except that where any person entitled to maintain an action for the recovery of lands, tenements, or hereditaments, or upon any instrument under seal, shall be at the time such right of action shall accrue under any of the disabilities aforesaid, such person or his proper representative, except where otherwise provided herein, may bring such action within five years after the removal of such disability, and not thereafter.

Sec. 1266. SUITS AGAINST DECEDENTS' ESTATES. -In suits against the estate of a deceased person, in computing the time of limitation the interval, not exceeding two years, between the death of the deceased and the granting of letters testamentary or of administration shall not be counted as part of said time of limitation.

Sec. 1267. FOREIGN JUDGMENTS.-Every action upon a judgment or decree rendered in any State or Territory of the United States or in any foreign country shall be barred if by the laws of such State, Territory, or foreign country such action would there be barred and the judgment or decree be incapable of being otherwise enforced there [; and whether so barred or not, no action shall be brought in the Dis

trict on any such judgment or decree rendered more than ten years before the commencement of such action].

Sec. 1268. ACTION BY THE UNITED STATES.-None of the foregoing provisions [aforesaid] of this chapter shall apply to any action in which the United States is the real and not merely the nominal plaintiff.

Sec. 1269. ABSENCE OF DEFENDANT.-If, when a cause of action accrues against a person who is a resident of the District of Columbia, he is out of the District or has absconded or concealed himself, the period limited for the bringing of the action shall not begin to run until he comes into the District or while he is so absconded or concealed; and if after the cause of action accrues he abscond or conceal himself, the time of such absence or concealment shall not be computed as any part of the period within which the action must be brought.

Sec. 1270. ACTION STAYED BY INJUNCTION. Where the bringing of an action has been stayed by an injunction or other order of a court of justice, or by statutory prohibition, the time of such stay shall not be part of the time limited for the commencement of the action.

Sec. 1271. NEW PROMISE TO BE IN WRITING, AND SO FORTH.-In actions of debt or upon the case grounded upon any simple contract, no acknowledgment or promise by words only shall be deemed sufficient evidence of a new or continuing contract whereby to take any case out of the operation of the statute of limitations or to deprive any party of the benefit thereof unless such acknowledgment or promise shall be made or contained by or in some writing to be signed by the party chargeable thereby: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall alter or take away, or lessen the effect of any payment of any principal or interest made by any person whatsoever: Provided, also, That in actions to be commenced against two or more joint contractors, or executors, or administrators, if it shall appear at the trial, or otherwise, that the plaintiff, though barred by the statute of limitations as to one or more of such joint contractors, or executors, or administrators, shall nevertheless be entitled to recover against any other or others of the defendants by virtue of a new acknowledgment or promise or otherwise, judgment may be given for the plaintiff as to such defendant or defendants against whom he shall recover. No indorsement or memorandum of any payment hereafter written or made upon any promissory note, bill of exchange, or other writing, by or on behalf of the party to whom such payment shall purport to be made, shall be deemed sufficient proof of such payment so as to take the case out of the operation of the statute of limitations.

No action shall be maintained whereby to charge any person upon any acknowledgment of, or promise to pay, any debt contracted during infancy made after full age, except for necessaries, unless such acknowÏedgment or promise shall be made by some writing signed by the party to be charged therewith: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall affect ratification by conduct.

Sec. 1272. DIRECTIONS AS TO DEBTS IN A WILL.-No provision in the will of a testator devising his real estate, or any part thereof, subject to the payment of his debts, or charging the same therewith, shall prevent the statute of limitatious from operating against such debts, unless it plainly appears to be the testator's intention that it shall not so operate.