123 Wis. 201 | Wis. | 1904
The statute declares:
“Every written instrument purporting to have been signed -or executed by any person shall be proof that it was so signed or executed until the person by whom it purports to have bmn ■so signed or executed shall specifically deny the signature or 'execution of the same by his oath or affidavit or by his pleading duly verified.” Sec. 4192, Stats. 1898.
This court has repeatedly held that this section only “dispenses with proof of the signature to a written instrument until the person by whom it purports to have been signed -shall specifically deny the signature of the same by his oath or affidavit or by his pleading duly verified. Wallis v. White, 58 Wis. 26, 15 N. W. 767; Nielson v. Schuckman, 53 Wis. 638, 11 N. W. 44. Here the answer of the defendant J. J. Hof, duly verified, expressly denies that he <Sver executed the note or the mortgage, and avers that the signatures of "“V. J. Hof ’ to said note and mortgage were forgeries, and that he never signed the said note or mortgage, or either of them, and never saw either of them until they were exhibited to him by the plaintiff’s attorneys four days after the commencement of this action. “In such a case,” as said by Chief Justice Cole, speaking for this courtj “the statute imposes upon the party claiming the note to be valid the burden of -proving the signature, and that the note is a binding obligation as against the party resisting the payment thereof.” Thomas Ludlow & Rodgers v. Berry, 62 Wis. 78, 80, 22 N. W. 140; Finlay v. Prescott, 104 Wis. 614, 618, 80 N. W. 930. Nevertheless, counsel for the plaintiff contend that ffhe burden was on the defendant Ilof to prove that his sig
By the Gourt. — The judgment of the circuit court is •affirmed.