52 Ga. 448 | Ga. | 1874
This case came before the court below on a certiorari from a justice’s court. The plaintiffs sued the defendant on a promissory note for $30 00, payable to the plaintiffs four months after date, for value received. The defendant offered in evidence, over the objections of the plaintiffs, that the note was given for a sewing machine, and that the plaintiffs’ agent agreed, at the time the note was given, that if the machine did not give satisfaction to his wife, that he (the agent) would take it back at any time within six months, the agent saying that his time would soon be out; that he wanted the note so as to enable him to get his commissions for selling the machine. The justic.e held that the parol evidence was admissible, and the court below sustained the ruling of the justice and dismissed the certiorari; whereupon the plaintiffs excepted.
Was the parol evidence admissible for the purpose of proving a condition to the contract not expressed on the face of the note? The written contract was a promise to pay the plaintiffs $30 00 for value received, without any conditions whatever. The defendant proposed to prove, and was allowed to prove, that his absolute, unconditional promise, in writing, to
The rule which excludes parol evidence from adding to, or taking from, or varying, written contracts, in view of our evidence act which allows parties to testify in their own favor, should not be relaxed. This ease does not come within that class of cases where receipts or notes have been given in settlement of a former indebtedness, which are subject to explanation.
Let the judgment of the court below be reversed.