11 Pa. Super. 499 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1899
Opinion by
The plaintiff sues as indorsee of a note made by Henry G. Lightner, the defendant, to the order of George Lightner. The defense is that the note was given without consideration, for the accommodation of the payee, and was received by the indorsee after maturity, with notice of this. The plaintiff denies that such notice was given. This, however, is immaterial, since he admits that the note was long overdue when he took it. Notice of matters of defense between the original parties is material only in the case of a note indorsed over before maturity ; after maturity, the indorsee, with or without notice, takes it subject to all such defenses. On the trial, therefore, the only question related to the consideration of the note.
The only specifications seriously pressed on the argument were the first, fourth and fifth, and these, indeed, are the only ones
The fourth specification relates to the competency of the payee of the note in suit to testify to certain matters set forth fully in the offer for their admission. An examination of the testimony of this witness and a comparison thereof with the entire offer upon which the court ruled, shows that, as a fact, all the matters therein were brought out on his examination, substantially, if not literally, notwithstanding the ruling of the court. Indeed his testimony is far broader than the offer and was apparently unrestricted in scope; therefore there is nothing to sustain this specification and it must be overruled: Spotts v. Spotts, 4 Pa. Superior Ct. 448. We do not pass upon the question of competency under the circumstances.
As to the fifth specification, the point to which it relates was properly affirmed. The maker and the payee agreed that the note in suit was given in April, 1893, in renewal of a like note given in 1888. The maker alleges that the earlier note, also, was given without consideration, for the accommodation of the payee, while this is denied by the payee. It appears that Samuel Lightner, brother of the payee, and father of the maker, died in 1881, having devised his property to his wife, during widowhood, with remainder in fee to the son upon her death or remarriage, and that she remarried in 1888. On the part of the plaintiff, it is alleged that Samuel Lightner, at the time of his death, owed his brother George §600, and Catherine Light