First National Bank of Wellington, Ohio v. Person
| Decision Date | 26 April 1907 |
| Docket Number | 15,125 - (45) |
| Citation | 111 N.W. 730,101 Minn. 30 |
| Parties | FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF WELLINGTON, OHIO, v. HAKEN PERSON and Another |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Action in the district court for Clay county to recover $1,103.12 upon a promissory note. The case was tried before Baxter, J who, at the conclusion of the testimony, directed a verdict in favor of plaintiff for $1,163.05. From an order denying a motion for a new trial, defendants appealed. Affirmed.
Bills and Notes -- Fraud.
In an action by the indorsee of a promissory note, it is held that the evidence offered by the defendant was insufficient to establish the allegations of their answer, to the effect that the note was fraudulent in its inception and was fraudulently put into circulation by the payee, and the trial court properly held that it was not incumbent upon plaintiff affirmatively to prove the bona fides of its ownership.
Nye & Dosland, for appellants.
N. I Johnson, for respondent.
Action to recover upon a promissory note, in which plaintiff had a directed verdict, and defendant appealed from an order denying a new trial.
The facts are as follows: Defendants made and delivered to the Aultman Engine & Thresher Company, a corporation, their promissory note for $1,100 in part payment for a certain steam threshing engine, then sold and delivered to them by that company. Thereafter, before the maturity of the note, and for a valuable consideration, the Aultman Company, payee of the note, indorsed and delivered the same to plaintiff, and this action was brought to recover the amount due thereon. Defendants pleaded in defense that the note was obtained by the Aultman Company by fraud, and was fraudulently put into circulation in violation of an agreement had with defendants at the time of the transaction, and, further, that the Aultman Company, as a part of the contract, represented that the engine was well made, of good material, and would furnish ample power to operate defendants' threshing machine; that the representations were false; that the machine was not well made of good material, would not furnish power for the operation of the machine, and was worthless. All of which the answer further alleges was well known to the company at the time.
At the trial plaintiff proved the indorsement and transfer of the note, and rested its case. Whereupon, after a few preliminary questions to defendants as witnesses, objections to which were sustained by the court, defendants' counsel offered to prove:
"That at the time of signing the note in question -- the note sued upon in this action -- it was then and there mutually agreed between the defendants and the payee mentioned in said note the Aultman Engine & Thresher Company, that said note should represent a part of the consideration for a certain threshing-machine engine mentioned in said note, and that it was further agreed that said threshing-machine engine was in every respect a good engine, well made, of proper material, and would do all the work of furnishing power to thresh grain, and that the defendants should have at least six days to test said engine and to ascertain if it fulfilled the conditions of said agreement, and that said note would not be deemed delivered or operative in any manner, or binding upon the defendants, until such test was made; that thereupon the defendants took said engine and undertook to use the same in the furnishing of power to thresh grain, but that said engine was not well made nor properly constructed, nor would not furnish power to operate threshing machinery, and was in fact totally worthless, whereupon the defendants demanded the return of the note in question from the payee thereof, and offered to return the engine in question to said payee, but that the said payee refused to deliver back said note, or to receive back the machine in question; that there was no other consideration whatsoever for the note sued upon than the engine in question; and...
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