3 Mo. 367 | Mo. | 1834
delivered the opinion of the Court.,
Martin sued Bates in the Circuit Court of St. Louis county on a note dated the 6th April, 1832, and payable four months after date. The plaintiff below was assignee of the note. The assignment was dated 12th April, 1832. The defendant pleaded,
Eirst. General issue.
Second. That he had paid the note to the assignor before the commencement of this suit, and before the note was due and payable, tp-wit: on the 9th day of May, 1832.
Third. That before the commencement of the suit, and before he had any notice of the assignment of the note sued on, and before the same became due and payable, he had paid to the payee and assignor of the note, the sum of money in the note specified. Issue .was taken on the first plea, and demurrers filed to the second and third. The-demurrers were both sustained, and the issue found for the plaintiff and judgment entered up. On the trial of the cause, the note and assignment endorsed thereon were read in evidence by the plaintiff, and the defendant read in evidence a receipt of the assignor of the note, showing the payment of the amount of the note to him on the 9th day of May, 1832, nearly three months before it became due. No other evidence was offered on either side. A-verdict was found for the plaintiff; and the defendant moved the Court to set it aside as against law and evidence. The motion being overruled, the defendant excepted to the opinion of the Court, and the-, cause comes here for reversal. The questions to he decided are, were the demurrers properly sustained? and was the motion for a-new trial properly overruled?
His defence then accrued while Martin held the note, and' it was against the assignor. Before he paid, ho should have seen that (ho payee still retained it, and had not assigned it; it is quite immaterial whether the note be due and payable or not, when it is assigned. In each case it is equally the duty of the maker to look after his note, and to know that ho pays his money to whom it is due. It is the opinion oí ibis Court, then, that the Circuit Court did riot err either in sustaining the demurrers sr in its finding of the issua for the plaintiff. Its judgment is therefore affirmed.