Van Patton v. Beals
Supreme Court of Iowa
Appeal from Jasper Circuit CouH. Action upon a promissory note. Judgment was rendered against the defendant Beals by default. The defendant Hammer answered, averring in substance that he signed the note as surety only, and was at the time of unsound mind and incapable of doing business, or of comprehending the nature of his act in signing said note. The evidence supported the averments, and showed that the note was given for an antecedent debt.
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Appeal from Jasper Circuit CouH. Action upon a promissory note. Judgment was rendered against the defendant Beals by default. The defendant Hammer answered, averring in substance that he signed the note as surety only, and was at the time of unsound mind and incapable of doing business, or of comprehending the nature of his act in signing said note. The evidence supported the averments, and showed that the note was given for an antecedent debt. The court, among other instructions, gave the jury the following: “ 6. The law cannot undertake to measure the validity of contracts by the greater or…
1Opinion of the CourtAdams, J.
i. pbomisunstmnduess surety.' ‘ The general rule, doubtless, is that an idiot or insane person is not bound by his contract. In Parsons on Notes and Bills, 1 Yol., 149, the author says: “There can'be no contract'unless there be a meeting of minds, and there can be no meeting oí
minds if one party has no mind which can meet the mind of the other.” Still this rule, like many others, can hardly be followed out in all its strictly logical results. In Bagster v. Earl of Portsmouth, 5 Barnwell & Cresswell, 172, it was held that an insane person is liable for necessaries, and such undoubtedly is the…
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