133 Ga. 779 | Ga. | 1910
The Bank of Covington brought an action on a note against Nowell, 'Cannon & Company, a partnership alleged to
A discussion of the rest of the evidence with a view of deciding whether the verdict was warranted will be more intelligible if we first declare the rules of law appropriate to the ease. Indeed, the divergent views of the parties do not spring so much from the substantive law as from its application to the facts of the ease. The proposition is well settled that notice of the dissolution of the partnership, when not caused by death, must be given to those who have dealt with the firm, or each member of the partnership will be bound by the acts of the other, dealing in the name of the firm with such persons, especially when the transaction relates to the past debt of the partnership. Actual knowledge would dispense with the necessity of actual notice of the dissolution, and the latter may arise from knowledge of facts which charges a person with notice. Ennis v. Williams, 30 Ga. 691; Johnson v. Dooly, 72 Ga. 297; First National Bank of Gainesville v. Cody, 93 Ga. 127 (19 S. E. 831); Bush v. McCarty Co., 127 Ga. 308 (56 S. E. 430); Bass Dry Goods Company v. Granite City Manufacturing Company, 116 Ga. 176 (42 S. E. 415). These principles were applied in Ewing v. Trippe, 73 Ga. 776, where it was held that “where a note is given in the name of a firm by one of the members, after dissolution, to one who extends credit to the firm and who has no notice of such dissolution, and where no notice of any kind has been given, such note binds the firm, notwithstanding the dissolution.” And where after the dissolution of a firm new notes are given by one of the partners in the firm name, either in settlement of a firm debt or in renewal of a firm obligation, the evidence should be clear and satisfactory of the notice of such dissolution to the creditor accepting such note, to discharge the other partner. Ransom v. Loyless, 49 Ga. 471; Moore, Marsh & Company v. Duckett, 91 Ga. 752 (17 S. E. 1037).
We will now enter upon an examination of the evidence with a view of ascertaining whether it afforded an inference that the Bank of Covington had actual notice of the dissolution of the firm of Nowell, Cannon & Company at the time it accepted from W. C. Nowell the notes in suit and surrendered to him the notes of the partnership, upon which the defendant Cannon was admittedly liable. One circumstance relied upon by the defendant in error to
Judgment reversed on main bill of exceptions, and affirmed on cross-bill.