9 Ga. App. 350 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1911
Kendrick executed an instrument whereby he agreed to pay to W. A. Griffith, or order, a certain sum of money. In the instrument it was recited that the indebtedness was for the purchase price of certain mules, and that the title to the mules was not to pass to the purchaser until payment of the indebtedness. The instrument was duly witnessed and recorded. On the back of it were the following entries: “Without recourse. W. A. Griffith. I. L. Griffith.” “Georgia, Lowndes County. For value received we hereby transfer the within paper to West Yellow Pine Company, without recourse. This July 3, 1908. Citizens Bank of Valdosta, by J. F. Lewis, Pres.” The West Yellow Pine Company brought suit in trover for the recovery of the property from the purchaser, who had failed to pay the indebtedness. At the trial this note, with the entries thereon, was introduced in evidence, and Mr. Lewis, president of the Citizens Bank of Valdosta, testified that the bank bought the note from W. A. Griffith, and that he and I. L. Griffith merely indorsed their names upon the back of the note, and that the words “without recourse” were not then written upon it, but that-afterward, when he, as president of the bank, again sold the paper, he wrote these words, “without recourse,” upon the back of the paper and above the signatures of the Messrs. Griffith. The plaintiff attempted to prove by this witness that his object and intention in writing these words above the signatures of the Messrs. Griffith was to effectuate the object of the transferring of the indebtedness and the title to the property to the West Yellow Pine Company, but on condition that neither the Messrs. Griffith nor. the bank
2. Of course, we are not unmindful of the fact that if the prior indorsements had operated to divest the title of the holder of the paper as to the property and to vest it in Kendrick, the indorsement of the bank would not be effectual to transfer any title, so that it
Judgment reversed.