33 Pa. Super. 54 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1907
Opinion by
It is vigorously contended by the appellant’s counsel that the legislature, in enacting the negotiable instruments law, intended to prescribe fixed rigid rules by which negotiable instruments shall be interpreted and the rights and liabilities of the parties thereto determined ; that it is more than a mere codification of existing law, and was intended to be a complete system in itself. However true this may be as to some, or even most, of its provisions, it cannot be accepted without qualification in the construction of sec. 20, which reads: “ Where the instrument contains or a person adds to his signature words indicating that he signs for or on behalf of a principal, or in a representative capacity, he is not liable on the instrument if he was duly authorized, but the mere addition of words describing him as an agent, or as filling a representative character without disclosing his principal, does not exempt him from personal liability.” The last clause, in terms at least, is simply declaratory of the established law; it introduces, no new rule, and the rule that it does embrace is obviously not a complete statement of the law whereby the question of the personal liability of one who signs in the manner described may always be determined. The “ mere ” addition of certain words will not exempt from personal liability, but the statement of the law in this form, instead of in the form of an affirmative declaration that doing this or that shall create a personal liability, indicates that the legislature did not intend to establish a fixed and rigid rule to be applied without regard to other facts, and particularly the intention of the parties to the instrument. The words imply that a signing in the manner described, taken in connection with other facts, may exempt from personal liability to the payee in the instrument. As there is nothing in the context to show the conditions under which there will be such exemption, resort must necessarily be had to the authoritative
Appeal dismissed at the appellant’s costs, without prejudice, etc.