90 Iowa 63 | Iowa | 1894
The note upon which the suit was brought is dated February 16, 1891, and is for the sum of one hundred dollars, due in six months, with eight per cent, interest, and payable to the order of A. H. Warren. It is signed by the defendants. Warren, the payee of the note, indorsed it to the plaintiff before it became due. The defendants admitted their signatures to the note, but alleged that the same were obtained by
The plaintiff claims that it loaned to Warren the sum of three hundred and fifty dollars for ninety days, and took the note in suit, with others, as collateral •security for the payment of the loan, and that it was a good faith transaction, without notice of any fraud or want of consideration in the note. There is no question made by appellant, but that the note was procured by fraud and was without consideration. The court instructed the jury as to the burden of proof as follows: “If you find that, as between the parties to said note, the same can not be enforced for want of consideration and on account of fraud, then, before the plaintiff can recover, it must show that it received said note as collateral security for the payment of money advanced at the time it so received said note; that same was received by it in the usual course of business, without notice of the defenses, if any, to said note, and before maturity of said note; and, to establish these matters, the burden is upon the plaintiff to establish them by a fair preponderance of the evidence.” The rule of law embodied in this instruction is correct. Lane v. Krekle, 22 Iowa, 399; Woodward v. Lodgers, 31 Iowa, 342; Bank v. Nelson, 41 Iowa, 563. The plaintiff introduced J. P. Nye as a witness. He testified that he is now vice president of the bank, and when the note in suit was indorsed to the bank he had -charge of the loaning of the funds of the bank; and that Warren, the payee of the note, resided at Shenandoah, Iowa, and that he had
There are many other circumstances in the case which were properly for consideration of the jury. We will mention but one.- The witness Nye testified that he had known Warren for four years, and he knew that