13 S.E.2d 519 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1941
1. A note payable to a particular person "or bearer" will be presumed, nothing else appearing, to belong to the one in possession of it. 11 C. J. S. 96, § 660.
2. Possession by the plaintiff of a note is only presumptive evidence of title. Such a presumption, being one of fact, is rebuttable; and, if rebutted by the plaintiff's or the defendant's evidence, possession alone is insufficient to support a finding in favor of the plaintiff. Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond v. Whitford,
3. In the instant case it appeared from the evidence of the plaintiff (an heir of the deceased) that the title to the note and the legal right to sue thereon were in the deceased's legal representative alone, and rebutted the presumptive evidence of title arising from the mere physical possession of the note by the plaintiff. The judge erred in overruling the defendant's certiorari.
A suit at law upon a promissory note can be maintained only in the name of the holder of the legal title to the instrument; and this is true even though the plaintiff may have a perfect equitable title thereto. Bond v. Maxwell,
Nor does the fact that the note was payable to J. C. Pirkle "or bearer" alter our ruling. An instrument payable to the order of a particular person "or bearer" will be presumed to belong to the one in possession of it (Cox v. Adams,
Judgment reversed. Broyles, C. J., and Gardner, J.,concur.