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131 N.Y. 462

30 N.E 487

43 N.Y.St.Rep. 662

Hegeman v. . Moon

New York Court of Appeals

Decided March 15, 1892

New York Court of Appeals · decided 1892-03-15

The complaint herein stated in substance that between 1863 and 1867 plaintiff advanced to his nephew, Adrian Hegeman, for his own account and the account of his mother, Cornelia W. Hegeman, various sums amounting in all to about $3,075, which Adrian agreed to repay. On January 1, 1869, there was due plaintiff for principal and interest, $3,363.41, for which Adrian made and delivered to plaintiff his promissory note payable on demand, with interest.

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

““The instrument is in its nature and substance a promissory note payable one year after the maker’s death.””

quoted by 1 later decision, including First Presbyterian Church v. Dennis

Relies on Carnwright v. . Gray · Rogers v. Kneeland · Kimball & Kiniston v. Huntington

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1892-03-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 61 later decisions — most recently June 1989 · most notably Ga Nun v. . Palmer (1916), Estate of Beatty v. Western College of Toledo (1898)

3 federal appellate · 53 state decisions

1401892190019101920193019401950196019701980decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Peckham, J.

¶1 The defendants object to the judgment herein because they claim the paper set out in the complaint' is of a testamentary character, and not being executed as pro *466 vided for by the statute of wills, is for that reason void. They also object that if not of such a character it is a contract to answer for the debt, default or miscarriage of another' person, ■or is one which by its terms is not to be performed within •one year, and in either event is void because it does not express ,a consideration.

¶2 "We think none of these objections is well founded. The ¡instrument is in its nature and substance a promissory note .payable one year after the maker’s death.

¶3 It has just been held in the second division of this court (that a promissory note payable by its terms after the death of jits maker, is valid. (Carnwright v. Gray, 127 N. Y. 92.)

¶4 In that-.case the instrument was in this form: “ Thirty days xafter death! promise to pay Cornelius Carnwright fifteen hundred dollars, with interest,” and was signed by the maker. •;Of course the promise was impossible of strict performance. '¡The maker could not pay after his death, and so his promise -was in one sense an impossibility. The law, however, regards the substance' of things, and the promise was in substance that thirty days after the maker’s death his estate should pay the sum promised by him in the note to be thus paid.

¶5 In the instrument now before us there is no promise expressed .in terms, but there is a direction to the executors of the maker >to pay the named sum in one year from, the maker’s death. 1 There is the further statement that such sum is due the payee ■'for cash advanced at various times by him to the maker’s son ¡•and ethers. The maker then signs such statement. From -.whom is the sum due \ A mitten statement that a certain ¡.amount of money is due a payee therein named, followed by -,the signature of the maker of the statement, implies that the •money is due from the maker and is an indebtedness from him to the person to whom the money is thus acknowledged to be •due. (Kimball v. Huntington, 10 Wend. 675.) The acknowledgement of the indebtedness, and that it is due implies a promise to pay it on demand. It is a promissory note within the statute. (Id.)

¶6 The addition of the words that the money is due the payee *467 for cash advanced at various times by him to Adrian Hegeman, my son and others, as per statement rendered by him this day,” does not alter the implication that the money is due the payee from the maker. It simply states the origin of the indebtedness of the maker. It was not for money advanced directly to her, but to her son and others. There is nothing inconsistent with her indebtedness to the payee in the fact of this acknowledged advance of the money to the maker’s son. An original indebtedness may have arisen against the maker by the payee advancing at the maker’s request moneys to her son. And when she says'that a. certain amount is due the payee and signs the statement, with the addition of the origin of the indebtedness, the implication is neither forced nor unnatural that she means that. the amount is due from her, or else she would not have signed the paper.

¶7 The time when the money is to be payable is, however, altered by the direction given to her executor to pay it one year from her death. If there were no limitation, an acknowledgement that the debt was due would imply that it was payable at once or on demand. The direction is, however, in the nature of a promise and expresses a time of payment and, therefore, excludes the presumption that it is payable immediately, which would otherwise arise from the use of the word due.

¶8 Being a promissory note it imports a consideration. (Carnwright v. Gray, supra.)

¶9 The defendants insist that even if the instrument be a promissory note and, therefore, within the principle that such an instrument in and of itself generally imports a consideration, no such presumption exists when the instrument shows on its face there is no valid consideration. They urge that the note in question shows on its face that the only consideration is an indebtedness of the son to the payee, and such consideration is not sufficient.

¶10 What has been already said disposes of this claim. The note shows an indebtedness from the maker, because such is the natural and fair implication to be derived from the language used. Whatever may be implied from language actually *468 used in an instrument is in judgment of law contained in it. (Rogers v. Kneeland, 10 Wend. 219.)

¶11 The views we take answer the objections of the defendants as above set forth, and it follows that the interlocutory judgment appealed from must be affirmed, with costs, with leave to defendants to answer over within twenty days after service of a copy of the order of affirmance on payment of costs.

¶12 All concur.

¶13 Ordered accordingly.

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