92 Iowa 356 | Iowa | 1894
“Please let me know if you intend to settle with me about that note I hold against you.” On the next day she answered in writing, referring to the note as follows: “I received your letter * * **357 Will come up after harvest, and the note, you know that I will pay what I can, and what is right.
“C. Hanson.”
The grounds of the demurrer are that the note is barred by the statute of limitations, and that the letters do not identify the note in suit as the one to which they refer, and that the one signed by the defendant is not sufficiently clear and unqualified to constitute a promise to pay the note, or an admission of indebtedness. Section 2539 of the Code is as follows: “Causes of action founded on contract, are revived by an admission that the debt is unpaid as well as by a new promise to pay the same. But such admission or new promise must be in writing, signed by the party to be charged thereby.” It is not necessary, in order to revive a cause of action under this provision, that there be both an admission that the debt is unpaid and a new promise to pay it, but either is sufficient. Stewart v. McFarland, 84 Iowa, 56, 50 N. W. Rep. 221, and cases therein cited. It is not essential to a revival of the cause of action that the admission be couched in precise and direct terms, but it is sufficient if it show with reasonable certainty that the debt is unpaid. Penley v. Waterhouse, 3 Iowa, 441; Manchester v. Braender, 14 N. E. Rep. (N. Y. App.) 405. A statement in the mortgage that the premises thereby incumbered were “already subject to a mortgage” in the hands of persons named is a sufficient admission that the debt secured by the paramount mortgage is unpaid. Palmer v. Butler, 36 Iowa, 581. Promises by the debtor to pay a claim “as soon as possible,” or “as soon as he could,” and others of a similar character, have been held sufficient as admissions of the debt. Norton v. Shepard, 48 Conn. 141; Butterfield v. Jacobs, 15 N. H. 140; Society v. Miller, Id. 520; Custy v. Dolan, 34 N. E. Rep. (Mass.)360; Chidsey v. Powell, 91 Mo. 625, 4 S. W. Rep. 446; Dever ereaux v. Henry, 16 Neb. 55, 19 N. W. Rep. 697; Hart