190 Mo. App. 366 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1915
This is an action on a contract of guaranty against W. T. Moon, the guarantor, who executed same collateral to a contract entered into by plaintiff with one John R. Parrish by which the plaintiff agreed to sell to Parrish on the terms mentioned, medicines, extracts and other articles manufactured by
It will be sufficient to say that plaintiff, located at St. Louis, Missouri, manufactures and sells the class of goods mentioned to itinerant vendors or peddlers who travel through the rural districts and sell same to farmers. The contract provided for the sale of such goods to Parrish on time and for periodical reports of sales and payments for the goods sold. The guaranty reads as follows: “In consideration of the execution and delivery of the within agreement by The Linro Medicine Company, and the sale and delivery hy it to the party of the second part of its medicines, extracts and other articles, as herein stipulated we, the undersigned, jointly and severally, guarantee the full .and complete payment of the same at the time and place and in the manner in said agreement provided. ’ ’ The plaintiff proved the execution of the contract between itself and Parrish and defendant’s signature to “the guaranty; that it sold and delivered to Parrish under his contract various shipments of goads covering a period of near three years and amounting to $606.32; various credits thereon amounting to $426.32, and a balance unpaid of $180, the amount sued for.
The evidence of defendant shows that when he signed the guaranty in question no contract had been executed or even signed by Parrish; that Parrish was already in that-business with another company and had not determined whether or not he would change and engage in this business with the plaintiff; that at the time defendant signed the guaranty it was attached to a blank form of contract, none of the blanks which •covered many of the details being filled out, and not -then signed by anyone. Defendant signed at the sol
Defendant further testified that he did not read the paper he signed and that plaintiff’s field agent told him it was a recommendation of Parrish to his company and that he did not know he was signing a guaranty of payment in case Parrish engaged in selling-plaintiff’s goods to he purchased on time. The defendant’s attorney frankly concedes in this court that as defendant could have read this instrument there is no defense on this ground, but we agree that such evidence'has a bearing on the question of defendant’s, knowledge of plaintiff’s acceptance of the guarant}7 so as to dispense with notice to him. Defendant’s evidence also is that he had never had any talk with Parrish in relation to the contract of guaranty and knew nothing from him about this matter when he signed the paper; that he saw Parrish about a week later and • Parrish then told him he did not know whether he would go to work for plaintiff or not; that he never received any notice as to his or any guaranty being accepted; that he knew Parrish was selling medicines, etc., but did not know whether he had changed companies; that the first he knew that plaintiff was trying to hold him as a guarantor was some two years later when he received certain letters to the effect that Parrish had failed to pay and plaintiff expected him to make it good. .
The present case, we think, falls within the line of cases holding that an offer of guaranty is not binding until accepted and notice of the acceptance given to the guarantor. [Deering Harvester Co. v. Sulser, 78 Mo. App. 670; Peninsular Stove Co. v. Adams Hardware Co., 93 Mo. App. 237; Rowell Mfg. Co. v. Isaacs, 144 Mo. App. 58, 128 S. W. 760; Deere Plow Co. v McCullough, 102 Mo. App. 458, 76 S. W. 716; Nelson Mfg. Co. v. Shreve, 94 Mo. App. 518, 68 S. W. 376; Rankin & Rankin v. Childs, supra; Bank v. Goldstein, 86 Mo. App. 516; Taylor v. Shouse, 73 Mo. 361.] In the case last cited the court held that the instrument sued on was not a guaranty of a contract “already entered into,” as in Davis Sewing Machine Co. v. Jones, supra, but a proposal to guarantee payment of a contract yet to be made and therefore notice of acceptance was necessary. In the case first cited, Deering Harvester Co. v. Sulser, the contract, though signed by the purchaser .at the time the guarantor signed, yet provided that it was not to be effective until approved by the plaintiff, and the court there said: “There was no contract, much less a guaranty of that contract, at the time defendant signed the paper now sought to be made a guaranty. The paper on which the contract was written especially withheld from it any force as a contract, or any acceptance of defendant as a guarantor, until such acceptance had been indorsed by plaintiff at Chicago, Illinois.” In the instant case there was no
The cases on this subject are reviewed at length in Pearsell Mfg. Co. v. Jeffreys, 183 Mo. 386, 81 S. W. 901, and Bank v. Stewart, supra, and we doubt if what we have here said has added anything to the learning on this subject or served to make clearer the somewhat shadowy distinction between the two lines of cases. We hold, however, that the court did hot commit error in holding that this is a conditional and not absolute contract of guaranty and that, there being no executed contract or acceptance of the guaranty when made, a subsequent notice of acceptance was necessary and that no such notice was given.
The result is that the judgment is affirmed.