Preston v. Hull
Supreme Court of Virginia
This was an action of debt upon a bond in the Circuit court of Smyth county, brought in January 1870, by •H. I). Hull against Charles H. C. Preston and B. P. Mantz. The suit was abated as to Mantz. The paper declared on was signed and sealed by Preston and Mantz, and bound them to pay to D. D. Hull sixty days after date, the sum of six hundred dollars.
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This was an action of debt upon a bond in the Circuit court of Smyth county, brought in January 1870, by •H. I). Hull against Charles H. C. Preston and B. P. Mantz. The suit was abated as to Mantz. The paper declared on was signed and sealed by Preston and Mantz, and bound them to pay to D. D. Hull sixty days after date, the sum of six hundred dollars. Preston appeared and filed a plea of non est factum, accompanied by an affidavit stating the facts on which he relied to support the plea. He also pleaded payment by Mantz. The facts material upon the question decided by this court, are…
1Opinion of the CourtStaples, J.
A bond is a deed whereby the obligor promises to pay a certain sum of money to another at a day appointed. 2 Black. Com. 846. An obligor and obligee are essential to the existence and constitution *603of such an instrument. It is not indispensable that the party to whom the promise is made should be mentioned eo nomine, that his name of baptism and sir-name shall be- given, but he must be in some unmistakable manner designated in the instrument. A writing, though executed with all the solemnities of a deed, without such obligee, is a mere nullity. It imposes no liability upon the party issuing…
2Cases cited3 opinions
- Smith v. CrookerMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1809
- Clegg v. LemessurierSupreme Court of Virginia · 1859
- Harrison v. TiernansCourt of Appeals of Virginia · 1826