Sweet v. McAllister
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Contract to recover for money paid upon a promissory note of $500, signed by the defendant McAllister as surety for the other defendants, Allen C. French and Benoni French, payable to the plaintiff, and indorsed and subsequently paid by him. The action was defended by McAllister alone.
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Contract to recover for money paid upon a promissory note of $500, signed by the defendant McAllister as surety for the other defendants, Allen C. French and Benoni French, payable to the plaintiff, and indorsed and subsequently paid by him. The action was defended by McAllister alone. At the trial in the superior court, before Ames, J., it appeared that Allen C. French, in May 1859, made an application to the. plaintiff to assist him in raising $1000, and the plaintiff agreed that, if French would get his father, Benoni French, to sign the note and McAllister to indorse it, he would indorse…
1Opinion of the CourtChapman, J.
The rulings in this case were correct and appropriate. Nothing can be plainer than that, in the absence of any proof to the contrary, the parties to a promissory note are liable on it according to the legal effect of the instrument; that is to say, the maker is liable to the payee and indorsees, the payee to the indorsees, and each indorser to the subsequent indorsees. It may be proved by paroi that the relation of the *355parties to each other is different from this; for example, that the payee or indorsee was the real principal, or that all the parties were joint principals, or some of them…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Pitkin v. FlanaganSupreme Court of Vermont · 1851