178 P. 744 | Mont. | 1919
delivered the opinion of the court.
This is an action on a promissory note for $1,000 dated December 11, 1914, and due six months after date. The complaint alleges execution and delivery to Baker on December 11, 1914; its transfer to plaintiff on December 12, 1914, for a valuable consideration, and nonpayment. The answer denies its transfer and delivery to plaintiff; and alleges affirmatively that if the plaintiff purchased the note, it did so long after maturity and notice of a valid defense thereto; that some time prior to December 11, 1914, one Baker, at Roundup in Mussel-shell county, endeavoring to sell stock in the Bankers’ Hail
The reply to the affirmative defense consists of denials, and direct allegations that plaintiff became the owner of the note in due course before maturity, in good faith, for a valuable consideration, and without notice of the defenses referred to.
At the close of all the testimony, on motion of plaintiff, the court directed a verdict against the defendant, and judgment was entered accordingly. These appeals are from the order denying defendant’s motion for a new trial and from the judgment. The making of both orders is specified as error in appellant’s brief.
The foregoing, being a resume of the pleadings, and taking, as they do, a wider range than the testimony adduced at the trial, will suffice to cover and dispose of all the questions arising on these appeals.
At the trial the plaintiff produced and identified the note
We come, then, to the question of the sufficiency of the affirmative defense pleaded by the defendant in his answer. That it falls far short of the requirements of a pleading designed to upset a transaction entered into in apparent good faith, will be seen by a reference to cases dealing with defenses of this character. (Butte Hardware Co. v. Knox, supra; Bullard v. Smith, supra; Ott v. Pace, supra.)
A reference to the evidence in the record will disclose that the alleged misrepresentations of Baker consisted of existing facts, and that the means of testing their accuracy were available to the defendant if he had chosen to investigate them for himself. With his contract, however, he seems to have been quite contented, for he testified: “I made no effort to investigate any of the statements Mr. Baker made to me.” The other statements alleged to have been made, consisted merely
The judgment and order are affirmed.
'Affirmed.