Brown

The decree entered at the June term, 1854, is valid. As the law then stood, the service of the summons on the de *617 fendants of the age of fourteen years, and upwards, was sufficient. (Practice Act of 1851, Sec. 29, subd. 1; Freeman on Judgments, Sec. 151.)

The infant less than fourteen (Alexander Martin) will be presumed to have been residing with, and to have been under the charge of, his parents, as there is nothing in the record to suggest the contrary. No service could properly have been made, therefore, on any other person than on the ■infant himself, and on his father and mother. (Practice Act of 1851, Sec. 29.)

But the father and mother were plaintiffs in the action. The maxim lex non cogit ad vana will have influence in applying the rules of statutory construction, and, unless the letter of the law absolutely requires it, the Legislature will not be held to have made the performance of any act a prerequisite to the acquisition of jurisdiction which could afford no protection to the infant, or information to the natural guardian.

It is manifest that service on the father, who was plaintiff, could in no way have benefited the infant, and we are convinced that the…