4 Johns. Ch. 693 | New York Court of Chancery | 1820
The first objection to the plea is, that Skidmore,-the assignee of R. & D. K. Allen, had no, authority to compromise or compound with the defendants Randolph &r Savage, as to the demand assigned to him. I do not perceive the force of this objection. Skidmore was not a mere agent to collect the debt of the Allens. The
The only real difficulty in this case is, that there is no general averment in the plea denying the charges in the bill, which, if true, would avoid the plea. The bill charges that the release was procured by misrepresentation, coercion, and fraud, and though this charge is denied in the answer accompanying the plea, there is not even a general averment to that effect in the plea. The release is pleaded nakedly, as was the award in the two Exchequer cases of Pope v. Bish and Edmundson v. Heartly. (1 Anst. 59. 97.) But in the latter of those cases, the Court said, they did not mean to extend the authority of them beyond the case of awards. In Lloyd v. Smith, (1 Anst. 258.) afterwards, in the same Court, such a naked plea of a release charged by the bill to have been procured by fraud, was not allowed, in the first instance, but reserved to the hearing. In Bayley v. Adams, (6 Vesey, 586.) the authority of those cases was very much shaken ; and it seemed to be considered by Lord Eldon as the better rule, that
I shall, therefore, as was done in the Exchequer cases, and as Lord Eldon consented to in Bayley v. Adams, allow the defendant to amend his plea; the amendment to be by inserting a general averment or denial of the facts charged in the bill, which go to show that the release was fraudulently or improperly procured. The amendment to be made in three weeks after service of a copy of this rule, and a Copy served gratis on the solicitor for the plaintiff •, and in default thereof, the plea to be deemed overruled, and with liberty to the plaintiffs to except to the answer of the defendant, Randolph, the survivor of R. & S.
As the cause was brought to a hearing, not only on the defect in the plea, but on the merits of the defence touching the competency of Skidmore to execute a release, I shall not grant costs upon this order, but reserve the question of costs to the conclusion of the cause..
Decree accordingly.
END OF THE CASES.