Pursuant to the maxim that actio personalis moritur cum persona, the claims and debts of the party become extinct on the day of its death. That is the reason why in English common law the successors could not sue their predecessor’s debtors; on the other hand, they were protected against the creditors of the deceased. It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of doctrine for the legal relations, especially within the scope of contract law.
In the early years (12th–13th centuries) of the functioning of the doctrine nearly all personal actions came into play. However, lawyers began to create more and more exceptions that narrowed the maxim’s impact. As a result, at the beginning of the 17th century (the Pynchon’s case, 1611) the court had in fact transformed the doctrine of actio personalis moritur cum persona into the exception.
It is worthwhile to note that the maxim’s history may act as an example of the peculiarity of English law and the domination of its procedural rules. Throughout the centuries the most important reason against the transmission of rights and duties was the practical impossibility of the wager of law’s application. In that case lawyers could only modify rules of evidence. Instead, in England it was decided to treat the claims and debts of the deceased as extinct. As a result, the consequences of the actio personalis moritur cum persona doctrine went much too far.