2 Wash. 204 | Wash. | 1891
The opinion of the court was delivered by
— Defendant W. H. Peterson made his negotiable promissory note to Mrs. Eliza E. Pool or order for the sum of $1,070. This note the payee sold to the plaintiff for a valuable consideration, and indorsed the same, and delivered it to said plaintiff before its maturity. Plaintiff sought in this action to recover- upon said note against the maker. L. Pool, the husband, intervened in the suit, and alleged that the money loaned for which the note was given was community property, and claimed that the transfer to plaintiff was void, and that he had no title upon which he could recover of the maker. The court below sustained this contention of the husband, and gave judgment for defendants.
There was no evidence tending to show bad faith on the part of plaintiff, and the only circumstance relied upon to charge him with notice that the note was claimed by the community was the fact that it was payable to a woman whom he supposed to be married. Under these circumstances, we think plaintiff took such a title to the note that he should have been allowed to maintain his action against the defendants. The maker promised to pay Mrs. Eliza E. Pool, or order,, and in making the note so payable he guaranteed, to every person taking such note in good faith, her ability to order the same paid to another — that is, to indorse it— and as to every such person buying in good faith and for value such guaranty was conclusive. That
We do not lose sight of the fact that all property, personal as well as real, acquired after marriage, is prima facie that of the community] but we hold that, from the
The claim of intervenor is so unconscionable that courts would not give it effect unless the statute very clearly warranted his contention. He says that the community had $1,070; that it loaned it, and obtained the note iu question; that it delivered said note to plaintiff, and received therefor $1,070, and is thus placed in exactly the same position as before the note was taken; but that it is still entitled to recover of the maker of the note another $1,070, thereby, without any consideration having passed therefor, doubling its money, and this at the expense of the plaintiff, who, though having contributed his $1,070 to the com