Miller v. Pound

• Decision Date: 14 March 1939
• Docket Number: No. 44682.,44682.
• Citation: 226 Iowa 628,284 N.W. 449
• Parties: MILLER v. POUND.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

226 Iowa 628

284 N.W. 449

MILLER

v.POUND.

No. 44682.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

March 14, 1939.

Appeal from Municipal Court of Des Moines; Charles L. Cooter, Judge.

Action at law upon oral guaranty of a book account sold plaintiff by defendant. From order sustaining demurrer to petition plaintiff appeals.

Reversed.

Howard W. Brooks, of Des Moines, for appellant.

W. O. Chatterton, of Des Moines, for appellee.

OLIVER, Justice.

[1][2] The petition declared appellant bought from appellee a service station with supplies, merchandise and book accounts; that appellee represented to appellant that the account in controversy was a good and active account and orally guaranteed payment thereof within 30 days; that the debtor failed to pay the same; and that thereupon appellant demanded payment from appellee which was refused. Judgment was prayed for the amount of said account.

This appeal is from the ruling of the trial court sustaining a demurrer to said petition as being founded upon an oral contract to answer for the debt or default of another and as such within the statute of frauds.

Appellant urges that the oral guaranty given him in connection with his purchase of the accounts was for the main purpose of subserving the objects and interests of appellee and, therefore, was not within the statute. This contention appears to have the support of the decisions of this state and the great majority of other jurisdictions. Where the holder of a note, book account, or other chose in action sells and transfers it for a consideration furnished him by the transferee and at the same time...