29 Ga. 315 | Ga. | 1859
By the Court.
delivering the opinion.
1st. The letter of Charles Whelan contains a reference to some debt which his son Francis owed to Richard H. Edwards ; and upon- the recognized principle of explaining a latent ambiguity, or to state the same thing in perhaps a more satisfactory form, upon the principle of reading the letter in the light of surrounding circumstances, when the debt to which reference is made is not stated upon the face of the paper, it was competent to show what debts existed, and perhaps even to show to which particular one the reference was made ; but then the parol evidence should, as I think, have been in harmony with the letter, and not contradictory to it. The letter spoke of a debt to Edwards, the proof related to a debt to Edwards & Hackney. For my own part, I think the evidence was inadmissible. And for a similar reason, I think the letter itself was inadmissible. It did not support the declaration. The declaration sets forth a promise to pay a debt to Edwards & Hackney, but the letter shows a promise to pay a debt to Edwards.
2d. But while my colleagues were not quite content to repose upon the foregoing view, we are all agreed that there was no consideration to support the promise in this case. It is the naked case of a promise to pay the debt of another;
Judgment reversed.