69 Pa. 204 | Pa. | 1872
The opinion of the court was delivered, July 3d 1872, by
This was an action brought by the State Bank, as endorsee, against the defendant as maker of the promissory note sued on, and the defence was that it had been fraudulently obtained from the defendant when he was drunk, and that the bank took it under such circumstances of suspicion that it was not a boná fide holder for value, without notice of the fraud. Under the charge of the court, the jury found that the defendant received no consideration for the note; that he was so intoxicated at the time he signed it, as to be wholly unconscious of what he was doing; and that the bank was guilty of gross negligence in taking it. Waiving for the present the question as to the sufficiency of the evidence to justify the jury in finding that the bank was guilty of gross negligence in taking the note; the first matter to be considered is, whether the intoxication of the defendant, at the time he signed it, is a valid defence to the action, if the bank is a bonfi fide holder of the note for value, without notice of the fraudulent circumstances under which it was obtained. Undoubtedly, the total drunkenness of the maker when he executed the note, if known to the payee, rendered it void as to the latter: Gore v. Gibson, 13 M. & W. 623. The old rule that a man should be held liable upon a contract made by him when in a state of intoxication, on the ground that,he should not he allowed to stultify himself, has been long since exploded, and it is now settled according to the dictate of good sense and common justice, that a contract made by a person so destitute of reason as not to know the consequences of his contract, though his incompetency he produced by intoxication, is void as between the parties : 2 Kent’s Com. 452. As was said by Parke, B., in Gore v. Gibson: “ Where the party, when he enters into the contract, is in such a state of drunkenness as not to know what he is doing, and particularly when it appears that this was known to the other party, the contract is void, and he cannot be compelled to perform it.” But if the drunkenness of the maker, when known to the payee and taken advantage of by him; or when so complete as to suspend the use of the reason and understanding, renders the note void in the hands of the payee, the question recurs whether it avoids it in the hands of an endorsee for value without notice of the maker’s condition when he gave the note and of the frau
The question whether it was lawful for the bank to purchase the notes at so great a rate of discount; and if not, whether there can be a recovery on the note in suit, does not arise on this writ of error, and therefore we express no opinion upon it. Where the verdict is for the defendant no question of law can be properly reserved, for no judgment can be entered in favor of the plaintiffs non obstante veredicto in case of a decision in his favor: Robinson v. Myers, 17 P. F. Smith 9. We must therefore revei’se the judgment and remit the record to the court below for a new trial.
Judgment reversed, and a venire facias de novo awarded.