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11 Ind. 310

Barnett v. Bullett

Indiana Supreme Court

Decided December 10, 1858

Indiana Supreme Court · decided 1858-12-10

<p>APPEAL from the Warrick Court of Common Pleas.</p>

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1858-12-10

How this case has been cited

Cited by 5 later decisions — most recently July 1935

5 state decisions

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Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Perkins, J.

¶1Suit upon two instruments of waiting of similar tenor. The following is a copy of one of them:

“ This agreement, entered into this 30th day of November, A. D., 1852, between George W. Bullett and James Barnett and Jacob Barnett, is, that the said Bullett doth agree to pay to said Barnett 584 dollars, 65 cents, without any interest, as soon as he can, but is not to be pushed nor sued, nor to sacrifice property to pay it, nor to pay it inside of any limited time.” Signed by the parties.

¶2The complaint avers the present ability of Bullett to pay the note, without a sacrifice of property, &c., and shows that the instrument was given upon a valuable consideration, viz., the conveyance of a tract of land.

¶3The complaint was demurred to, and the demurrer sustained.

¶4The ground upon wdiich the demurrer was sustained below, and upon which the ruling is supported by counsel here, is, that the instrument amounts to nothing — that it is a promise never to pay; but we do not so interpret it.

¶5The legal import of the writing is, that Bullett will not agree to be sued, or to have his property sacrificed to pay the sum named, or to pay it within a limited or fixed time; but that he will pay it as soon as he can — that is, as soon as he is able to do so without such sacrifice.

¶6The complaint is sufficient.

¶7Per Curiam. — The judgment is reversed with costs. Cause remanded, &c.

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