75 N.J.L. 806 | N.J. | 1908
The opinion of the court was delivered by
This writ of error is brought to reverse a judgment entered upon a verdict directed for the plaintiff, Herbert A. Rice, in the court below. The defendant was R. C. Barrington, and the note upon which the action was brought read as follows:
“$380.14. Mount Holly, N. J., Nov. 9th, 1905.
“Three months after date I promise to pay to the order of Roger Byrnes three hundred and eighty .14 dollars, at Mt. Holly, value received. R. C. Barrington.
[Endorsed] — “Roger Byrnes,
“Dr. I-I. A. Rice.”
The plaintiff testified that he bought the note from its pa}ree, Byrnes, before maturity, to wit, January 8th, 1906. On cross-examination the plaintiff was asked:
“Q. Well, you had purchased a note from Mr. Byrnes before this date, which you had found out from the party had been fraudulently obtained from him, had you not ?”
The rule thus laid down covers the remaining assignments of error also, for they all rest upon the assumption that notice of suspicious circumstances is the legal equivalent of proof of actual fraud.
This disposes of the assignments of error.
At the very close of the trial counsel who then represented the defendant made a motion for the direction of a verdict for the defendant, upon the ground that the plaintiff had not proved his title to the note, because he had not shown that the name of the payee that appeared to be endorsed on the note was the writing or signature of Roger Byrnes. The trial court denied this motion and allowed an exception. In view of the decision of this court in Beckley v. Evans, 20 Vroom 442, and the rulings upon evidence made in the pending trial, this motion, if well founded in the testimony, would be open to question. The denial of this motion, however, is not assigned as error. Indeed, the matter is not at all referred to in the brief of counsel for the plaintiff in error, which, on the
Finding no error upon any point that has been assigned, the judgment of the Circuit Court is affirmed.
For affirmance — Ti-ie Chancellor, Chiee Justice, Garrison, Swayze, Trenci-iard, Parker, Bergen, Bogert, Vroom, Green, Gray, Dill, J.J. 12.
For reversal — None.