Brewster v. Colwell
New York Supreme Court
Error from the Jefferson common pleas. Brewster sued Colwell and two others, trustees of a school district, in a justice’s court, and claimed to recover an account for wood furnished the school. The defendants set off a due-bill given by the plaintiff, payable to O. & C. Colwell or bearer, transferred by the payees to the defendants in tiffs suit.
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Error from the Jefferson common pleas. Brewster sued Colwell and two others, trustees of a school district, in a justice’s court, and claimed to recover an account for wood furnished the school. The defendants set off a due-bill given by the plaintiff, payable to O. & C. Colwell or bearer, transferred by the payees to the defendants in tiffs suit. It was objected, on the part of the plaintiff, that the defendants, as trustees of a school district, had no authority to purchase choses in action, and that it was incumbent on them affirmatively to show that they came by the due-bill in the…
1Opinion of the Court
By the Court,
Savage, Ch. J.
The plaintiff in error insists that the trustees of a school district could not become the endorsees of a promissory note. The trustees are a corporation for certain purposes; they may do sundry acts which involve to some extent the transaction of monied concerns. They no doubt may receive, for money due to them, the note of a third person. Until the note was impeached, or some defence made against it, they were under no obligation to show how they came by it. The courts below decided correctly, and the judgment of the common pleas must be affirmed.
Judgment affirmed.
2Cited by3 opinions
- Alger v. MillerNew York Supreme Court · 1868
- Commissioners of Highways v. PeckNew York Supreme Court · 1843
- De Wolf v. WattersonNew York Supreme Court · 1885