49 S.C. 513 | S.C. | 1897
The opinion of the Court was delivered by
The plaintiffs brought this action to recover from the defendants the amount mentioned in a promissory note, of which the following is a copy: “$2,000. Barnwell, S. C., Oct. 25th, 1-894. Ninety days after date, I promise to pay to the order of myself, $2,000, at office of E. B. Cuthbert, No. 1 Exchange Court, New York city, for value received. Mike Brown.”
The defendant, Mike Brown, put in no answer, and judgment was entered against him by default at the July term, 1896. The defendant, Jennie Brown, put in her answer as follows: “That she is a married woman, that is to say, the wife of her codefendant, Mike Brown, and that she signed the said note as indorser; that the said contract was in no wise for her individual use or for the benefit of her estate.”
The case as against defendant, Jennie Brown, came on for trial at the November term, 1896, before his Honor, the late Judge Earle, and a jury. After the pleadings were read, the plaintiffs put in evidence the note sued on, its execution having been admitted by the answer of the defendant, Jennie Brown, and then put in evidence two bound volumes of the statute law of the State of New York, for the purpose of showing what was the law of that State as to the contracts of married women, as it existed at the time the note sued on was made, and closed their case.
The defendant’s counsel moved for a nonsuit upon the ground that the plaintiffs have failed to prove that defendant had signed the note as maker. The motion for a non-suit was overruled, and thereupon the defendant offered a witness for the purpose of proving that the defendant signed the note simply as an indorser, and not as maker. Upon
From the order granting leave to the defendant to amend her answer as proposed, the plaintiffs appeal upon the three exceptions set out in the record, which, however, raise the single question whether there was error in granting the leave to amend at the time and under the circumstances stated. While it may be quite true that the amendment asked for could properly have been allowed, if applied- for at the proper time, yet the question assumes a very different aspect when the amendment wTas not applied for until after the trial had commenced, and after the plaintiffs had closed their case, and a motion for a nonsuit had been refused, indicating very clearly that, in the opinion of the Circuit Judge, the plaintiffs had made out their case, and were entitled to the judgment demanded, in the absence of any showing to the contrary, which was not made. To allow a defendant at that stage of the case to amend his
The judgment of this Court is, that the order allowing the amendment be reversed and set aside, and that the case be remanded.