Wyatt v. Wallace

• Decision Date: 10 March 1900
• Citation: 55 S.W. 1105
• Parties: WYATT v. WALLACE et al.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

55 S.W. 1105

WYATT v. WALLACE et al.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

March 10, 1900.

Appeal from circuit court, Benton county; Edward S. McDaniel, Judge.

Action by Wyatt against Wallace & McGaughey upon a promissory note. From a judgment for defendants, plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

March 10, 1898, appellant brought suit in the circuit court against appellees on a negotiable promissory note for $282 executed by them at Rogers, Ark., December 28, 1896, to one J. O. Grenamyer, and indorsed in blank by Grenamyer. The note is copied in the findings of the court. The plaintiff alleged that the note was transferred to him by Grenamyer for a valuable consideration, and that he immediately notified the makers of the transfer. Appellees answered, setting up the following defenses: That the note sued on in this action was given for a patent right obtained by George J. Cline, of Goshen, in the state of Indiana, for improvements in a smooth wire fence machine, for which letters patent were issued, bearing date January 31, 1893, and numbered 490,946; and the payee of said note, J. O. Grenamyer, claimed to be an assignee of a one-third interest in said patent right for all the territory west of the west line of the state of Indiana, and that L. E. Stewart and James Rush, of the same place, held the other two-thirds interest as assignees in said patent in the same territory with him, and that they empowered him, the said payee of said note, in form and manner provided by law, to dispose of their interests in the said patent to any and all persons who desired to purchase the same, for such sums of money or any other consideration as the said payee would choose to accept, and that they would ratify his actions in that behalf. That the said J. O. Grenamyer, payee of said note, drafted and formulated the note sued on herein, without any suggestions whatever from the payors of said note, in violation of the laws of the state of Arkansas, as set out in section 493, Sand. & H. Dig., and executed to defendant Wallace a patent-right deed for said improvements in a smooth wire fence machine, to one-third interest in and to the state of Arkansas. Following is a copy of the finding of facts by the court, so far as need be set out for the decision here in this cause. "By consent of both parties, the cause was submitted to the court sitting as a jury, and the court, after hearing the evidence, made the following findings of fact: On the 28th day of December, 1896, the plaintiff resided, and has since resided, in Bentonville, Benton county, Arkansas, and defendants resided, and have since resided, at the town of Rogers, in said county, about six miles from Bentonville; all being citizens of the state of Arkansas. On said 28th day of December, 1896, one J. O. Grenamyer sold to the defendant James Wallace, at said town of Rogers, one-third interest in patent-right territory in the state of Arkansas for a certain...