6 S.D. 472 | S.D. | 1895
This was an action to recover the amount appearing to be due upon a promissory note, but which the defendant and respondent claims was altered after it left the maker. The note was upon a printed blank, ahd when it left the hands of the defendant, the maker, it was in the following form:
“$- December 21, 1886.
‘ ‘On or before the first day of-, 188-, for value received, I promise to pay to the Insurance Company of Dakota, at its office in Sioux Falls, Dakota,-Four-Dollars.
“[Signed] • Martin Seipp.”
When the note was offered in evidence, it appeared that the word “Forty” had been inserted on the line before the word “Four, ” the figures ‘‘44.00” inserted at the top left-hand corner, after the $ mark, and that the time of payment had been filled in. The word “Four,” as written in the blank, was about inches frqm the left-hand margin, thus leaving sufficient space to the left of the word “Four” for the word “Forty” to be written in, without attracting attention or creating suspicion
The case of Bank v. Stowell, 123 Mass. 196, is a case in its facts almost identical with the one at bar, except the note'in that case was negotiable. The facts are stated as follows: “George W. Bardwell obtained from the plaintiff a printed blank form of promissory note, such as the bank was accustomed to use. He then wrote in the figures ‘67’ at the top of the note, leaving a space of three-tenths of an inch between the mark ‘$’ and these figures, and also wrote in the words ‘sixty-seven’ before the word ‘dollars’ in'the body of the note, leaving three inches of the blank space before the words ‘sixty-seven’ unfilled, signed the note thus filled out, and presented it to the defendants, who, at his request and for his accommodation, signed the note as a note for $67, and with no knowledge or ex
The contention of the learned counsel for appellant, there fore, that the note, when given to the two men, was signed in blank, is mot supported by the evidence, as construed by the authorities. The blank for the amount for which the note was given was filled up when the word “Pour,” was written .therein, and the note signed by the- defendant. No one had authority, expressed or implied, to alter the amount to any extent whatever. The fact that there was a space to the left of the word “Pour” on the same line, was not material. But, as we have stated, the note in controversy is not negotiable, not being made payable to order or bearer (section 4456 Comp. Laws); and the plaintiff, as assignee, -stands in the same position with reference to the note and any defense thereto, as the original parties to the same (Stebbins v. Lardner, 2 S. D. 127, 48 N. W. 847; Hegeler v. Comstock, 1 S. D. 138, 45 N. W. 331). As to such a note, therefore, we apprehend there could be no question as to the rights of the maker to show all the facts attend ing the execution, and, when an alteration is shown in the same