Townsend v. Bush
Supreme Court of Connecticut
THIS was an action of assumpsit against Bush as acceptor of a bill of exchange drawn by Ebenezer and Atwater Townsend, and payable to the plaintiffs or order. There was also a count for money paid, laid out and expended for the defendant’s use. The cause was tried at New-Haven, August term 1814, before Swift, Brainard and Baldwin, Js. On the trial, the defendant admitted the drawing and acceptance of the bill, as stated in the declaration.
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THIS was an action of assumpsit against Bush as acceptor of a bill of exchange drawn by Ebenezer and Atwater Townsend, and payable to the plaintiffs or order. There was also a count for money paid, laid out and expended for the defendant’s use. The cause was tried at New-Haven, August term 1814, before Swift, Brainard and Baldwin, Js. On the trial, the defendant admitted the drawing and acceptance of the bill, as stated in the declaration. His defence was usury under the following circumstances. E. and A. Townsend applied to W. Leffingwell in New-York for the loan of a sum of money.…
1Opinion of the Court
Trumbull,
The principal question in this case is, Whether Ebenezer and Atwater Townsend, the drawers of the bill in question, are admissible witnesses in an action by the plaintiffs as payees of the bill against the defendant as acceptor, to prove that it was executed on an usurious contract, and therefore is void in law.
The rule that no person can be permitted to give testimony to invalidate any instrument to which he has made himself a party by affixing his signature, in cases wherein he has no interest in the event of the suit on trial, was first adopted in the case of Walton v. Shelley, 1…
2Cited by12 opinions
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