175 N.W. 357 | S.D. | 1919
This action is brought to recover on a promissory note. The note is dated at Bonesteel, February 16, 1905. It is payable to “Emmetsburg' Importing Company,” at the Palo • Alto 'County Bank at Emmetsburg, Iowa, on the 2d day of October, 1906, with, interest at 6 per cent, per annum, payable annually. The Emmetsburg Importing Company was a copartnership, doing business at Emmetsburg, Iowa. On the 18th day of April, 1905, the Emmetsburg Importing Company indorsed and transferred said note to McLaughlin Bros., a co-partnership, doing business at St Paul, Minn. This transfer was an absolute sale of the note for its full face value, and it was taken by McLaug'hlin Bros, without knowledge of any de
Defendants pleaded, and undertook to prove, that the note sued on was obtained from ’them by fraud and misrepresentation, and that the consideration therefor had failed. Plaintiff; to 'save the -time of the court, admitted the facts pleaded as constituting a defense, and' admitted that such facts' would have ■constituted a valid defense to the action' as against the original ■payee of the note, and stood strictly'upon'its rights as a “holder in due course.” Upon this state of the" case, the'trial court'took -the case from the jury, made findings of'fact and conclusions of •law favorable to plaintiff, and entered judgment .accordingly. ■ Front this judgment and an order overruling'their' motion for a -new trial, defendants ¿ppéal. ‘
“When a negotiable note is purchased after maturity from an innocent holder for value, the purchaser takes it free from all equities and defenses that existed between the original parties to the paper.”- Joyce on Defenses to Com. Paper, §§ 433 and 489.
See, also, Comstock v. Hannah, 76 111. 535, and Matson v. Alley, 141 Ill., 284, 31 N. E 419, and cases cited.
In Newell v. Gregg, 51 Barb. (N. Y.) 263, and Bank v. Commissioners, 14 Minn. 77 (Gil. 59), 100 Am. Dec. 194, relied .upon by appellants, default was made in the ‘ payment o£ an installment of interest prior to the first endorsement, so that under the rule contended for by appellants there never was an indorsee in “due course” in either of those cases.
All the transactions involved in this case took place prior to the enactments of our so-called Uniform Negotiable Instruments Act (Laws 1913, c. 279), and the ca^e must be disposed of without reference to the provisions of that act.
The judgment and order appealed from are affirmed.