117 Mich. 535 | Mich. | 1898
This action was brought in assumpsit against the defendant Williams Milling Company (a corporation) as maker, and defendants Frank D. Pierson and George L. Mosher as indorsers, of a promissory note. The declaration is upon the common counts, to which is added a copy of the note sued upon, and a notice that the note constituted the plaintiff’s sole cause of action. Defendants pleaded the general issue. Upon the trial the defendants
“United States oe America, State of New York.
“I, Henry Wheeler, notary public, do hereby certify that I have this day duly protested for nonpayment the annexed bill.
“Troy, December 14, 1896.
[Seal.] “H. Wheeler, Notary Public.”
When this note and certificate of protest were offered in evidence, the court below held that the certificate was insufficient, in that it did not show that payment of the note was demanded at the place of payment, or what the notary did, if anything, to notify the indorsers, and that plaintiff could not recover against the indorsers. The case being on trial before the court, an adjournment was given from May 13th to June 8th following, when the plaintiff again produced the note, and a certificate of protest, purporting to be made by the same notary, in due and legal form, which would have entitled the plaintiff, if attached to the note in the first instance, to hold the indorsers. It was conceded that this certificate was made out after the former partial hearing on the 13th of May, by the attorney for the plaintiff, drawn upon his typewriter at Bay City, Mich., and sent to the plaintiff bank, at Troy, N. Y., and there signed by the notary, and returned, without any change or alteration whatever being made in it as drawn at Bay City. The plaintiff then rested its case, and no other testimony was given upon the trial by either party. The court found that neither certificate was sufficient evidence of the protest of the note; that the second certificate was made more than six months after the actual protest of .the note, and was not proof of the facts therein stated. Judgment was given for the plaintiff against the Williams Milling Company, as maker of the note, and in favor of defendants Pierson and Mosher.
But counsel further contend that at least the court was in error in refusing to enter judgment after the Second certificate was received in evidence. In this contention we think counsel are correct. In Burkam v. Trowbridge, 9 Mich. 209, it was said:
“The object of this notice has always been held to be merely to bring home to the party sought to be charged information that the paper has been presented at maturity, and dishonored, and that he is looked to for payment. * * * The protest of a note includes, by natural inference, the timely demand and refusal which alone could justify it; and a notice of protest, therefore, is an inferential statement of these.”
Our statute makes such certificate of protest prima facie evidence. A proper certificate is annexed to the note, and the only objection made is that it does not bear date as of the day the presentment was made. If a note or memorandum had been made by the notary at the time he made the presentment, showing what was done, and time when, a certificate made up from that memorandum
The judgment below must be reversed, and judgment entered here in favor of the plaintiff against all the defendants.