92 Minn. 299 | Minn. | 1904
Action on promissory note. The complaint alleged the execution of the note, that for value the owner “duly assigned, transferred, and indorsed, and delivered the said note to this plaintiff, who is now the owner and holder thereof,” and that it had not been paid, with demand for judgment. The answer contained a denial of each and every allegation in the complaint; alleged that the note was given as collateral security to other notes, which had been previously paid; and also alleged facts which, if true, would constitute a defense to the instrument in a suit between the original parties. At the trial plaintiff introduced the note, which was receive’d, and upon the presumptions and inferences arising therefrom rested. Defendant then offered to show that the note had been transferred after maturity, and evidence of the matters further pleaded to establish his defense, which were excluded, whereupon the court ordered a verdict for plaintiff for the amount of the note, which was returned. Defendant appeals from the denial of a motion for a new trial.
The court below may have been misled by the limitations upon the scope of the general denial in an early decision of this court (Finley v. Quirk, 9 Minn. 179 [194]), but we have in cases of a more recent date given a wider and broader scope to the general denial than formerly, in consonance with the spirit and purpose of'modern enlarged views of pleading (Stone v. Quaal, 36 Minn. 46, 29 N. W. 326; Nunnemacker v. Johnson, 38 Minn. 390, 38 N. W. 361; Hanson v. Diamond Iron Min. Co., 87 Minn. 505, 92 N. W. 447); and, following the later doctrine laid down in these cases, we see no reason in principle why the specific averments set forth in the complaint and all inferences of fact implied by law therefrom are not as fully put in issue by the averment that the defendant “denies each and every allegation” as if what is inferred by law from the general statements therein had been specifically set forth and specifically denied. The evidence tending to-show that the note came into plaintiff’s hands after it became due was improperly excluded.
Order reversed and new trial granted.