68 Md. 443 | Md. | 1888
after stating the case as above, delivered the-opinion of the Court.
The bankrupt law is set, forth in the Bevised Code of the United States. By sec. 5119 of this Code it is provided that, subject to certain limitations which are not now im
The remaining question is whether this claim is a provable debt. If the bankrupt was guarantor of the single bill, it could not have been proved; unless his liability had become absolute before the final dividend was declared. Sec. 5069. The testimony on the part of the plaintiffs tends to prove that the defendant “told them that if Brown did not pay the note, he would do so himself, and that his endorsement would make it as good as gold,” and that the defendant endorsed the note in blank, and transferred it to the plaintiffs. The first section of the ninth Article of the Code, authorizes the assignment of bonds and dioses in action by writing, signed by the person authorized to make the same. And if the assignment is under the hand and soal of the obligee, the eighth and ninth sections of this Article authorize, under the circumstances therein mentioned, an action by the assignee against the assignor. No action, however, is given by the Article against the assignor, where he merely makes the assignment in writing without seal. Now it is well settled that the legal effect of an endorsement in blank, made on a single bill by the obligee, is to confer on the holder the power to fill up the blank with a full assignment of the interest to himself. Chesley vs. Taylor, 3 Gill, 251; Shriver vs. Lamborn, 12 Md., 170. This mode of assignment, as we have seen, cannot subject the assignor to the consequences of a guaranty. The parol contract alleged in the evidence cannot impose these responsibilities upon him; because a contract to pay the debt
We have not overlooked the decisions which have been made on transactions, which Judge Story describes as irregular endorsements of promissory notes. In consider-: ing the liabilities incurred by an endorsement on a promissory note, made by a third person, who is not the payee, he states the rule which has met with general acceptance; the . interpretation of the liability ought to be such as will carry into effect the true intention of the parties, which may be made out by parol proof of the facts and circumstances which took place at the time of the transaction. Story on Promissory Notes, sec. 419. But the. endorsement by the payee is a matter which requires a very different determination. We do not consider it necessary to pursue the subject, because a single bill is not a commercial instrument like a promissory note. The assignment is entirely statutory and the liabilities incurred depend on the statute, and not on the principles of mercantile law.
The ruling of the Court worked no injury to the plaintiffs, but gave them advantages to which the law did not entitle them.
Judgment affirmed.