6 Pa. 327 | Pa. | 1847
The note sued on not being negotiable, there can be no question that Rickerts and Stewart took it subject to every equity existing at the timé of the transfer, between the original parties to it; and, therefore, the admitted failure of the consideration upon which it was given, to say nothing of the falsehood and fraud practised by Edgar upon Kline, affects it fatally in the hands of the equitable assignees, unless, indeed, they were induced to purchase it by Kline’s declaration, that it was a valid instrument and would be paid at maturity. Such a representation, acted upon Iona fide by the transferrees, would preclude the defendant from any inquiry into the adequacy of the consideration, or the fairness of the original transaction, for it amounts to a relinquishment of any objection he might otherwise have made on these grounds, and it matters not whether the representation proceeded from ignorance, carelessness, or design. Carnes v. Fields, 2 Yeates, 543; Weaver v. McCorkle, 14 Serg. & Rawle, 304; Chamberlain v. Gorham, 20 Johns. 144. Assuming there was proof of this on the trial below, though the fact seems to have been disputed, its effect was to raise in favour of the assignees a counter equity superior to that residing in the maker of the note, upon the principle that it would be unjust to visit them with a loss occurring because of the negligence or folly of the obligor, there being no default in the assignees; McMullen v. Wenner, 16 Serg. & Rawle, 21. But'as the ground
Judgment affirmed.