Few v. Hilsman

1. Any promise to answer for the debt, default, or miscarriage of another, to be binding on the promisor, must be in writing. Civil Code, § 3222. Considering only the evidence in behalf of the plaintiff, the testimony was insufficient to show a novation by which the defendant was substituted for the plaintiff’s debtor and that the plaintiff accepted him in lieu of the original debtor; for there was no testimony that the plaintiff agreed to release the original debtor, but, on the contrary, the original debtor was one of the defendants in this ease. An oral promise to pay the debt of another…