4 Wend. 420 | N.Y. Sup. Ct. | 1830
By the Court,
This case in all its essential features resembles that of Depuy v. Swart, (3 Wendell, 135.) The negotiability of the note on which the suit is brought, was destroyed by the discharge of the maker under the insolvent act, and its subsequent transfer did not give to the person receiving it a right to maintain an action directly on it.
There is, however, another feature in this case which does not seem to have received as much notice as it appears to me to have deserved. The payee of the note was the only witness by whose testimony the action was sustained. He transferred the note after the statute of limitations had attached, and after the maker had been discharged. The
I have some doubt whether the promise proved in this case is available to the plaintiff below; it was not made to him or to his agent. To do away the effect of a discharge under an insolvent law, there must be an express promise to pay, This promise need not be made directly to the plaintiff. If made to his agent it is good ; or if made to a third person it may be good, but in the latter case I think it should be a promise to pay the plaintiff. It is not in proof in this case that the promise was, that the defendant below would pay Yiele, the plaintiff. Blood was the original holder of the note, and it does not appear that when Moore made the promise subsequent to his discharge, he conversed with Blood in any other character than as holder of the note. I consider that the promise to pay was made directly to him. I am not willing to say that a promise to pay Blood will sustain the action by Yiele.
Judgment of common pleas reversed.