5 Rob. 249 | La. | 1843
The defendants are sued as the endorsers of four promissory notes, drawn by Christmas & Norfleet, for $26,000, two of them payable in March, 1841, and the other two in March, 1842. There was judgment against them for $8000, with interest, being for the balance owing on the two first mentioned notes, and in their favor for the two last; it not appearing that they were presented for payment at maturity, protested, and notice given according to law. From this judgment, the defendants have appealed.
The defence rests on an exception, that the plaintiffs have no right to sue on the notes, their capacity of receivers not being legal, and their appointment not conferring any authority. On the merits, they admit, that their signature is genuine, but aver, that no notice of protest was ever given them. They allege, further, that they are discharged, by the plaintiffs, or the Bank of the United States, under which they claim, having, without their consent, made arrangements with the drawers, and given them an extension of the term of payment.
The exception, as to the capacity and authority of ihe plaintiffs to sue, was, we think, correctly overruled by the court. The question has been definitively settled in the case of Frazier and another, Receivers, &c. v. Wilcox and another, recently decided in this court, 4 Robinson, 517.
The evidence of protest, and notice thereof to the defendants, on the two notes due the 1st — 4th March, 1841, is very satisfactory. The notes due one year after, appear not to have been protested at all; the defendants were, therefore, properly discharged as to them.
The question, whether time was given to the drawers of the notes, without the assent of the endorsers, is the principal one in the cause. The law in relation to extending the term of payinent
The Bank of the United States, being the holder of the notes sued on, one of the drawers applied to Frazier, the agent of the Bank in Mississippi, where the drawers- resided, to receive payment in the notes of the Agricultural Bank of that Slate, which said agent agreed to receive, if paid on or before the 20lh of March, 1841. On the 19th March, Christmas, the drawer, who had made this arrangement, writes from Vicksburgh to Caruthers & Co., in New Orleans, saying, that Norfleet & Christmas were owing a debt due on the 1st — 4th of that month, at the Merchants Bank, in that city, which belonged to the United States Bank, and that Frazier, the agent, had agreed to receive payment in the notes of the Agricultural Bank, if paid on or before the 20th. He then says: “ I wish you to see the Bank immediately, and get the time
In this case, it has been said, that the assent of the defendants
Judgment affirmed.