51 Vt. 471 | Vt. | 1879
The opinion of the court was delivered by-
The only question made as to the liability of the defendant .on the facts reported, is in regard to the sufficiency of the notice to'charge him as an indorser of a negotiable promissory note. When the first transactions out of which the note in suit had its origin transpired, the defendant resided at East Dorset, Yt. When the note in suit was given he had changed his residence, unbeknown to the plaintiff, to Concord, Mass. On the day the note matured, the plaintiff mailed to the defendant, addressed to East Dorset, a notice of the presentation of the note to the maker for payments, its non-payment and protest, which arrived at East Dorset that evening, and was forwarded by the post-master, by the next day’s mail, to the defendant at Concord, Mass., at which place the defendant received it by due course of mail. The plaintiff, by the law merchant, had until the day following the day on which the note fell due, to mail notice of its presentation, non-payment and protest, to the defendant at Concord, Mass. By so doing he would have exercised such diligence as the law demands, and have fixed the liability of the defendant as indorser, although the defendant never received the notice. The defendant, having actually received the notice through the mail as early as he would if the plaintiff, in the exercise of due diligence, had mailed it to him at North Bennington on the day following the maturity of the note, addressed to Concord, Mass., has not been prejudiced, nor put to a disadvantage in pursuing the maker of the note, from the fact that the plaintiff addressed the notice to East Dorset instead of Concord, Mass. If the notice had never in fact reached the defendant, or if it had not seasonably reached him, it is probable that the failure of the plaintiff to ascertain the defendant’s residence at the time it discounted the note, and its addressing the notice to him at East Dorset, showed such a lack of diligence as would have discharged the defendant. So, too, where the law requires the notice to be delivered to the indorser at his residence
Judgment affirmed.