7 Watts 328 | Pa. | 1838
The opinion of the court was delivered by
The question presented here is, does the holder of a negotiable note for money, made payable to W. S. or bearer at a subsequent day, who has taken it of W. S. in the ordinary course of business, and given for it a valuable consideration, without notice of any objection which (he maker may have to the payment of it when it shall become due, hold it subject to the equities which existed between W. S. and the drawer; and liable to all the objections which the latter had a right to set up against (he payment of it to W. S. had he not parted with it? That, such notes have grown out of the commerce of the country and the exigencies of it, must be admitted by all. They have been resorted to and used in commercial operations as a part of the circulating medium, without which the great objects of commerce could not well be accomplished or at
In support, however, of the judgment of the court below, determining that the plaintiff took the note here subject to all equitable considerations existing between the drawer and the payee, the case of M’Cullough v. Huston, 1 Dall. 441, has been cited ; as also the act of 1797. The court, in M’Cullough v. Huston, profess to be governed entirely, in their decision of the case, by the provisions of the act of 1715, making bonds and notes given for the payment of money, and made payable to assignees or order, assignable ; and enabling the assignees and indorsers thereof to maintain suits in their names in the same manner as the obligees or payees might have done. The case of M’Cullough v. Huston, it was said by the late Chief Justice Tilghman, 12 Serg. & Rawle 265,‘though never overruled, has always been regretted. Anterior to that, I believe, it had not been overruled, but its correctness had been questioned by high judicial authority; and perhaps spoken of as having no binding efficacy. See Mr Wharton’s note to it, in his edition of 1 Dall. 411, and the cases and dicta therein referred to by him. The legislature of this province in 1715 may, and most likely did not consider ■promissory notes, though drawn in negotiable form, for the payment of money, as appertaining to the commercial business of the country, and forming as it were a part of the circulating medium of it, with
Judgment reversed and judgment for the plaintiff.