376 COLEGATE D. OWINGS' CASE.

is allowed to take depositions before any justice of the peace, or
the commissioners of this court in the city of Baltimore, to be
read in evidence at the hearing of this matter on giving two days'
notice as usual.

Nothing having been done under this order, the case was, on
the 28th November 1827, ordered to stand for hearing at the then
next December term, unless cause was shewn to the contrary; and
no cause having been shewn, the case was brought before the
court for a final decision.

20/h February, 1828.—BLAND, Chancellor.—This case standing
ready for hearing and having been submitted, without argument or
notes, the proceedings were read and considered.

The bill charges, that the deed of the 15th of June 1824, was
obtained by combination and fraud; which of itself, if true, would
afford a sufficient ground for the relief prayed. But this allegation
is especially bottomed upon the statement, that at the time the deed
was executed, the plaintiff had been deprived of her intellectual
faculties; and that she was then in truth entirely non compos men-
tis; either from great age, or by reason of the disorder under which
she was then suffering. She makes her own incapacity the chief
basis of her prayer for relief. But, according to a maxim of the
English law, no man can be allowed to stultify himself for the
purpose of avoiding his own deed.(h) If we are bound by this
maxim; and it be an established principle of our law, it is evident,
that every thing in this case, which can be considered as at vari-
ance with it, must be rejected; and we must be confined to that
alone which relates to the allegations of fraud, in total exclusion
of every thing respecting the plaintiff's personal disability occa-
sioned by her alleged insanity.

The application of this maxim to this case, therefore, meets us
here, as a preliminary inquiry. Can the unfortunate or afflicted
party himself make his own insanity a foundation of relief or
defence? Is it a principle or maxim of the law of Maryland,
" that no man of full age shall be, in any plea to be pleaded by
him, received by the law to stultify himself, and disable his own
person ?"(i) I have not been able to find any adjudged case, or
other respectable authority, shewing in what manner this maxim
has been received; or whether it has ever been adopted or rejected

(k) Beverley's Case, 4 Co. 123.—(f) Beverley's Case, 4 Co. 123.