92 S.E. 616 | N.C. | 1917
Plaintiff sued upon an unsealed note given by B. B. Meroney and the seven other defendants, on 3 March, 1914, for $448.75, due twelve (654) months after date, with interest at 6 per cent per annum. Judgment was entered in favor of the plaintiff, and the defendants appealed. The defense was, and defendants propose to show, that the note did not express the true contract between the parties, and that instead of being an unconditional promise to pay the amount of money specified in the note at the time stated, there was a very different agreement, in substance and effect, and as a part of the alleged agreement it was stipulated at the time that the defendants would not be required to pay until they had sold certain real estate. The plaintiffs held a judgment against defendants, as sureties of one T. N. Bates, former sheriff of the county, who defaulted in the payment of taxes collected by him, and could have issued execution at any time against defendants and collected the money due upon the judgment. The transaction between the parties really amounted to an agreement, as stated in the note, to extend the time of payment for twelve months, and the defendants *709 propose to show that this was not the true agreement, but that they were to have a much longer time to pay, and, in fact, what might be an indefinite time.
We cannot see how this alleged agreement is supported by any sufficient consideration. It is really a nudum pactum. The county was getting nothing by the arrangement, and, if possible, less than nothing, as the benefit was all on the side of the defendants, and the disadvantage all on the side of the county, and this was reversing the order of things, as the party to whom the promise is made should have the benefit, or the other party the disadvantage. A contract has been defined as "an agreement," upon sufficient consideration, to do or not to do a particular thing. Bl. Com., 442; 2 Kent Com., 449; Clark on Contracts (2 Ed.), p. 2. And it is more particularly defined as follows: "Consideration is that which moves from the promisee to the promisor, at the express or implied request of the latter, in return for his promise. As the term is used in the law of contracts, it means a `valuable' consideration; that is, something having value in the eye of the law. It may consist either in `some right, interest, profit, or benefit accruing to one party, or some forbearance, detriment, loss, or responsibility given, suffered, or undertaken by the other.'" The consideration to support a promise need not inure to the promisor; it is sufficient if it consists in a detriment to the promisee. Bank v. Bridgers,
But, instead of making the ground of decision the want of a consideration to support the alleged agreement, we may safely rest it upon the familiar rule that parol evidence will not be admitted to vary or contradict a written contract. The object here is to prove, not a collateral contract consistent with the written one, which was not reduced to writing, but a contemporaneous oral stipulation that varies the written contract materially, and which would tend to prove a very different *710
contract. This is contrary to the well-settled rule, as stated by the Chief Justice in Walker v. Venters,
There are many authorities to the effect that when the terms of a promissory note are so clearly expressed as to create no doubt of their meaning, parol evidence will not be admitted to substantially change them, as, for instance, to postpone the date of payment. Free v. Hawkins, 1 Starkie, 361; Getto v. Binkert,
The substantial question was whether the defendants could engraft upon the written contract by oral proof a stipulation conflicting with the provisions already there, and believing that the ruling of the court on this proposition was correct, we affirm the judgment.
No error.
Cited: Sumner v. Lumber Co.,