75 Iowa 72 | Iowa | 1888
— It appears from the averments of the petition that the plaintiff and the defendant executed a promissory note to a corporation known as the “ Jasper Co-operative Association.” The note is in these words : “Newton, Iowa, September4,1878. Por value received,on or before January 1, 1881, I promise to pay the Jasper Co-operative Association two hundred dollars, with ten per cent, interest thereon from January 1, 1878, until paid. A. D. Jacobs, A. L. Harrah.”
Harrah executed the note as surety for Jacobs. On the twentieth day of November, 1880, the said corporation sold all its stock to the plaintiff. The contract of sale was as follows : “ That we agree to sell our stock to A. L. Harrah, as shown on the secretary’s book at the
The plaintiff insists that his transaction with the corporation amounted to a purchase of the note, and not a payment. The same theory was claimed in the cases of Lamb v. Withrow, supra, and Bones v. Aiken, 35 Iowa, 534, and Johnston v. Belden, 49 Iowa, 301. It is true that in all the cited cases the obligations had been reduced to judgments. But the principle involved is the same. It is that a joint maker of a note, who is in fact surety, is not entitled to recover, by purchasing a note or a judgment rendered upon it, either upon the note or judgment. It makes no difference whether he calls the transaction a jour chase or a payment. His action is one for indemnity for the money paid. It is