85 Tenn. 224 | Tenn. | 1886
This is a hill filed originally by the Lookout Mountain Railroad Company against R. G. Houston & Co. and others, but amended so as to. make the “others” complainants. The bill alleges that the complainant, the Lookout Mountain Company, was a corporation authorized to build and
Houston & Co. interpose a demurrer upon several grounds, the only one of which that .was pressed in the court below or in this Court is that the bill shows a promise, not in writing, to pay the debt of another, and, as such, is void under the statute of frauds and perjuries.
The demurrer was sustained by the Chancellor, and complainants have appealed.
In this we think there is manifest error. The veihal promise or agreement by Houston & Co. to pay these debts was the consideration for which Stanton & Co. surrendered their contract, and for which the railroad company canceled that conti'act and entered into a less advantageous one with the defendants.
The contract of Houston & Co. to pay such debts is “ a new and original undertaking,” upon a valid consideration passing at the time, and does not fall within the statute. Moore Miller v. Stovall, 2 Lea, 543, overruling Campbell v. Findley, 3 Hum., 330. See also Randle v. Harris, 6 Yer., 509; Macon v. Sheppard, 2 Hum., 338; Mills v. Mills, 3 Head, 711.
Reversed and remanded.