60 Ala. 117 | Ala. | 1877
[After stating the facts] — We think there was no error in the ruling of the circuit judge, Appellants
“The promise of one person to pay the debt of another, made upon a new and valuable consideration beneficial to the promisor, is not within the statute of frauds,” — Mason v. Hall, 30 Ala. 599.
The facts make this case less obnoxious to that statute, than were the cases McKenzie v. Jackson, 4 Ala. 230, and Mason v. Hall, supra. In the former of those, Ormond, J., said: “Adams and McKenzie promised Gerald to pay the debt which the latter owed to Jackson, in consideration of receiving the effects of the former firm, which are transferred to them; and subsequently McKenzie, by parol, prpmises Jackson to pay him, and solicits indulgence. If Gerald, instead of transferring merchandise and debts on other persons, had handed over to McKenzie the amount in money, with directions to pay it to Jackson, it can not be doubted that the person receiving it would be liable on his promise to him; and yet there can be no difference between the two cases,” — See, also, Farley v. Cleaveland, 4th Cowen, 432.
In the present case, appellants say that the administrator of the estate, against which the debt to appellees had been contracted, has had charged against it too much by about $1,000; for which the estate was not liable, either to the creditors, or to the administrator, upon his settlement. But, instead of controverting this question with the creditors, the administrator is charged with that sum in. their settlement with him, and they obtain judgment and a levy on his property for that much more than they otherwise would be entitled to, and make themselves hable to the payment of the
Let the judgment of the Circuit Court be affirmed.