130 Mo. App. 232 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1908
This is a suit on a promissory note. Plaintiff recovered and defendant appealed. Plaintiff owned and held the note against defendant for'many .years. It amounted at the time this suit was instituted to about $1,300. He finally placed it' in the hands of an attorney, authorizing* him to compromise the same at $200, payable in installments of $50 each. The attorney instituted suit on the note and then entered into an agreement with the defendant whereby the defendant agreed to pay, and the plaintiff, through his attorney agreed to accept $200 in installments of $50 each in full for the indebtedness. Defendant paid the first installment of $50 thereon to the plaintiff’s attorney, which he (the attorney) retained for the account of his client, the plaintiff. Plaintiff personally repudiated the agreement and refused to accept any payment thereon. The defendant tendered to plaintiff several fifty dollar installments thereafter as they became due under the agreement, but defendant says be refused to accept them. It was admitted that the defendant owed the note except for the agreement mentioned; that it was many years past due, and no consideration for the agreement other than above stated appears in the evidence. In fact, the only defense interposed against plaintiff’s right to recover was the agreement above stated, whereby the plaintiff’s duly authorized attorney agreed to accept $200 in full of the entire indebtedness and actually accepted $50 payment thereon. The court found the facts as above stated and declared as a matter of law thereon that there is no consideration to support the promise of the plaintiff to accept less than the amount of the debt, and therefore gave judgment against defendant for the amount due on the note. Yol. 6 Am. and Eng. Ency. Law (2 Ed.), 377, says': “It is a familiar rule of law that an agreement between a debtor and a creditor whereby the latter agrees to discharge the former on payment of
In this case there is no question of composition however. The facts present a simple proposition where