174

Court of Appeals of Virginia.

1830 .

May.

Clarke’a

adm’r.

Day.

Briggs for the appellant, said the plea of nil debet wasclearly not a good plea to an action of debt in this state ona judgment of a court of another state in the union. Hecited const. U. S. art. 4. § 1. Laws U. S. 1790. 1 cong.2 sess. ch. 11. 2 Bior. 102. Mills v. Duryee, 7 Cranch,481. Hampton v. M’ Connel, 3 Wheat. 234.

Stanard, contra. The constitution of the U. States pro-vided, that “ full faith and credit shall he given in each stateto the public acts, records and judicial proceedings of everyother state and the authorities cited shew, that a judgmentof a court of one state is to have the same credit and ef-fect in the courts of every other state, that it has in thestate in which it was rendered. This is not controverted.But, in the present case, it does not appear, that the courtsof Kentucky which rendered these judgments were courtsof record ; nor are the laws of Kentucky in any wise madepart of this record, so that our courts can judicially knoweither the character of the courts that rendered the judg-ments, whether they were courts of record or not, or thelegal effect of these judgments, whether or no they areconclusive even in Kentucky , and whether the plea of nildebet would or would not have been a good plea in bar toan action on them there. If the federal courts may judi-cially take notice of the laws of all the states, their juris-diction being co-extensive with the union, it does not followthat the state courts may do so too. Neither are the re-cords of the proceedings in the courts of Kentucky madepart of this record ; and for aught that appears, the judg-ment of the circuit court of Jefferson, Kentucky , may havebeen rendered in the absence of Day, and without his know-ing that any such proceeding had been instituted againsthim; a proceeding, which the laws of some of the statestouching foreign attachments are understood to allow. Ithas never been held that judgments of that kind are con-clusive against the absent defendant in his own state, or (itis hoped) even in the state where they are rendered.