247 Pa. 190 | Pa. | 1915
Opinion by
The plaintiff sues as the personal representative of N. M. McDowell, deceased, who, at the time of his death, was the holder of certain coupons issued by the defendant company 1st July, 1884, and which fell due 1st January, 1885. These coupons originally accompanied a certain bond issue of the company amounting to $250,000, and were obligations for the first installment of interest to accrue thereon. The action was for the recovery of the amount evidenced by the coupons, viz: $7,500.00. Twenty-eight years having elapsed between the maturity of the coupons and the bringing of the action, plaintiff was met at the. threshold of her case with the legal presumption that the coupons had been paid, which presumption, except as successfully rebutted, was conclusive against her right to recover. The learned trial judge was of opinion that the evidence adduced was insufficient, and accordingly directed a verdict for the defendant. From the judgment entered thereon this appeal has been taken. The question raised has been sufficiently indicated in what we have said. In considering it we must have regard, first, to facts assumed, the plaintiff being entitled to the assumption, viz: that these coupons had been issued by the defendant company in accordance with law; that when issued, they were legally binding on the company, and that the plaintiff is a bona fide holder. The next fact, one appearing in the evidence; is, that the defendant company’s books, so far as the company was able to produce them on the trial, under a rule, failed to show that these coupons have ever been redeemed. Still another matter to be considered is the effect of the evidence offered to explain why an earlier demand had not been made for payment of the coupons. When the purpose of the interest coupons is considered, and the legal incidents which attached to them, the fact that plaintiff is a bona fide holder of the coupons on which the present claim is based, is entitled to greater weight than it Avould be did the claim rest on an indi
Now, as to the facts shown aside from that referred to. First, however, a word as to what the rule is and what is required. It does not extinguish the debt, for no mere rule could do that, but simply declares that when the creditor seeks to enforce an obligation that has been past due for twenty years, the burden shall be on him to show, by a prima facie case, that the debt has not been paid. Keeping in mind the requirements of the rule, and the purpose the defendant had in adopting the form of its coupon obligations, the significance of the plaintiff’s offer of the books of the defendant company, produced on rule, becomes apparent. The coupons were outstanding; they had never been in possession of the company since they were issued, the books of the defendant company contain nothing to show that they were ever paid, or that the company’s liability therefor had ever in any way been discharged. The witness who produced the books — ledger, minute book and cash book — was the secretary and treasurer of the defendant company. The cash book contained consecutive and continuous entries from 1st January, 1885, when the first entry was made,
The assignment of error is sustained; the judgment is reversed with a venire facias de novo.