93 Iowa 140 | Iowa | 1894
The action is upon a promissiory note of which the following is a copy: *“$120.00. Fort Dodge, Iowa, May 14th, 1888. On or before the 14th day of May, 1889, I promise to pay to the order of Cole, Grant & Co., one hundred and twenty dollars, value received, with interest at 8 per cent, per annum. Payable at the TV ebster Co. Fence Factory. F. Zeims.” The defendant denies that he signed the same in the formitnow appears, but aversthat at the time he signed the paper no writing whatever was upon it; that the same was not then a promissory note, nor in the form of one. No payee was named in the instrument, and the figures “$120.00” and the words “Cole, Grant &
There was testimony in the case from defendant himself, tending to support his claim that the paper is a
The defendant testified: That dark, who represented he was an agent for Oole, Grant & Co., tried to induce him to accept the agency for the sale of a patent fence in certain territory in Webster county, but that he (defendant) would not agree to do it. That Clark then represented that Breese & Breese, living in Ft. Dodge, were agents for Cole, Grant & Co., and were to manufacture the fence, and that, he (defendant) agreed to go and see Breese & Breese about the matter; and that Clark induced him to sign a paper upon which there was some printed matter, but no writing, in order that Breese & Breese might identify him as one who had been selected by Clark as agent for Cole, Grant & Co. That nothing was said about executing a note, and the paper was never intended as a note for any amount; and that he did not sign it, except as a means through which Breese & Breese might identify him.
The third contention of appellant presupposes the execution of the note in its present form by the defendant, under the mistaken idea that the paper he was • signing was something different from what it turns out.
II. The court instructed the jury properly on the question of the alteration and forgery of the note, and followed these instructions with paragraphs in refer