142 Iowa 373 | Iowa | 1909
The defendant was a depositor in the plaintiff bank, and on May 31, 1907, presented his book at the counter, desiring to withdraw the amount to his credit. It is shown without controversy that the amount due him on that date, principal and interest, was $1,285.22, and
II. The court also gave the jury the following instructions, to each of which the plaintiff takes exception:
(10) When one pays money on an alleged claim against him, he is forever precluded from saying he did not owe it, if he paid it under no mistake of fact, and if the party receiving it made use of no illegal means to coerce the payment. In such ease, if a party would resist such unjust demand, he must do so at the threshold. The parties treat with each other on equal terms; and, if litigation is intended by the party of whom the -money is demanded, it should precede the payment. A party can not voluntarily pay money in satisfaction or discharge of a demand unjustly made on him, and afterwards recover back the money, even though he should at the time protest that he was not bound to pay the same.
(12) You are instructed that, if you find from the preponderance of the evidence that on or about the 31st*376 of May, 1907, the defendant called at the plaintiff’s bank to withdraw certain deposits he had there, and without using any fraud, artifice, or deceit to induce the bank to pay him more than was his due, and the bank, with full knowledge of all the facts and circumstances affecting said deposits and their payment, and without mistake, voluntarily paid the defendant $100 more than was due him, then the plaintiff bank is estopped from now demanding a return of said $100, and your verdict should be for the defendant.
The plaintiff submitted certain requests for instructions seeking to confine the jury to the consideration of the single question whether plaintiff did mistakenly pay the defendant $100 in excess of the amount due him, but the instructions were refused. From what we have already said it follows that they should have been given as requested, or the thought which they expressed, or its equivalent, should have been embodied in the charge given by the court.
Other errors are assigned, but we find none which appear prejudicial. For the reasons above stated a new trial must be ordered.
The judgment of the district court is reversed.