14 Pa. Super. 232 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1900
Opinion by
The note upon which this judgment was confessed was in all respects regular and contained upon its face nothing to excite suspicion that it had been in any way altered or changed. It was not negotiable paper, but it closed with these words: “ And I do further agree that this note shall be subject to the same rules governing commercial paper, as to equities.” ' It is admitted that the signature to this note is the genuine signature of the defendant. The defendant, in his petition for a rule to open the judgment, sets forth that the note upon which the judgment was entered was for $4,200, and that he had never given John Howie a note for $4,200; that he had signed notes payable to John Howie for sums not exceeding at any one time $200 or $300, and though he, the deponent, had not now a clear
In the present case the express covenant upon the face of the note, which the defendant sent out over his signature, that it should be subject to the same rules governing commercial paper, as to equities, must be presumed to have been intended by the parties for some purpose. So long as the note was held by the payee this clause meant nothing, and the parties must be presumed to have known that it was only when the note passed into the hands of a purchaser for value before maturity that this clause could become of any force. So long as Howie held the note the equities between him and the defendant would have been the same with regard to this note as if it had been commercial paper. But without this clause in question, the equities of the defendant as against an assignee for value would have been entirely different. It was, therefore, manifest upon the face of this instrument that it was the intention of the parties that it should be negotiated, and they made that intention a part of their contract. It was a declaration by Lewis that Howie was authorized to negotiate the note, and an agreement upon his own part that any purchaser for value before maturity should take the note discharged of any equities existing between the original parties. It did not make this note negotiable paper, but it simply invested it with that
The second ground upon which the application to open was based, namely, that the defendant was illiterate, or unable to read handwriting, and that Howie had fraudulently induced him to sign a note for 14,200, representing that it was for an amount not to exceed $300, and that he, said Howie, would not call upon him for payment, seems to have been considerably shifted by the testimony taken under the rule. In his petition for a rule to open the judgment defendant said unqualifiedly : “ Deponent is a man past seventy-five years of age, and is unable to read handwriting.” When he came to testify in support of the rule he says, with regard to this note: “ I think there
It is, however, clear that the testimony produced in blue court below was sufficient to defeat a recovery upon this note by any person other than a purchaser for a valuable consideration before maturity. There can be no question that Howie perpe
The Supreme Court have, since the above opinion was written, in the case of Howie v. Lewis, 196 Pa. 558, passed upon the questions raised by this record.
Judgment affirmed.