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12 Johns. 409

Arnold v. Camp

New York Supreme Court

Decided October 15, 1815

New York Supreme Court · decided 1815-10-15

THIS was an action- on a promissory mote-, payable to the plaintiff, or bearer, on demand, for 464 dollars and 69 cents,dated the 10th of February,. 1813, and executed by Camp, and one Downing, his partner, against whom process had been issued jointly with Camp, but who was not taken. The cause-was tried before- Mr. Justice Spencer, at the Oneida circuit, in-June-, 1815.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1815-10-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 15 later decisions — most recently April 1906

1 federal appellate · 1 district · 8 state decisions

401815182018301840185018601870188018901900decided

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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Thompson, Ch. J.,

¶1delivered the opinion of the court. ' The . question is, whether, under the circumstances of this case, Camp is not discharged from all responsibility upon this. note. There.is nothing in the case showing that Downing is insolvent, or" unable to pay the note he gá.ve in" his individual capacity.. As Downing had received property to’ discharge the -note, the rede-, ¡¡very of it to the plaintiff was unjust, as it respected Camp-, and he is justified in availing himself of all legal measures.' td" exonerate himself from the payment. ' The .circumstances op-. pear to fully warrant the -conclusion, that the individual note off

¶2*411Downing was intended to be given to, and was actually received by, the plaintiff, in satisfaction of the partnership note. This was delivered up for the purpose, as must necessarily be inferred, of being destroyed. This is a much stronger case than that of Shechy v. Mandeville. (6 Cranch, 264.) It is there held, that, although, as a general principle, a promissory note will not of itself discharge the original cause of action, yet if, by agreement, the note is received as. payment, it satisfies the original contract, and the party receiving it must take his remedy on it. That case also shows that the doctrine of nudum pactum has no application to cases like the present; there also, as in this case, it was the note of one of the; firm that was held to discharge the. partnership. The same doctrine is maintained in Newmarck v. Clay, (14 East, 239.) and in Toby v. Webster, (5 Johns. Rep. 72.) ■ This court considered the acceptance of a note as an extinguishment of a pre-existing debt, if agreed to be received as payment; and Whetherby v. Mann, (11 Johns. Rep. 518.) is' a still stronger case. It is there held, that when a negotiable note has been received in satisfaction of a judgment, it is an extinguishment of the judgment debt. If the facts, then, in the case before us, will warrant the conclusion, that when the individual note of Downing was taken, and the partnership note delivered up, it was intended and agreed to be considered as payment of the note in question, there can be no doubt but that, in judgment of law, it will operate as a satisfaction of the partnership note ; and that the facts, not only fairly, but necessarily, lead to such a conclusion, will, in my opinion, admit of no doubt. The defendant i,s accordingly entitled to judgment.

¶3Judgment for the %fendant.

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