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14 Wend. 231

Curtis v. Smallman

New York Supreme Court

Decided October 15, 1835

New York Supreme Court · decided 1835-10-15

Error from the Onondaga common pleas. Smallman sued Curtis in a justice’s court. The suit was commenced 6th January, 1834. On the trial, the plaintiff produced a due bill given by one S. Gilson, whereby Gilson acknowledged to be due to Curtis or bearer the sum of $22,64, with use since June 24, 1833, with an endorsement on the back thereof, signed by Curtis, in these words: “ I warrant this note good. June 27, 1833.” The defendant admitted his signature. The plaintiff rested.

Cited in Anderson (1889)’s definition of “Goods”

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1835-10-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently September 1862

6 state decisions

301835184018501860decided

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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¶1By the Court,

Sutherland, J.

¶2I think the court of common pleas erred. The note or due bill must be considered as bearing date the 24th of June. It was due immediately, that is, on demand. The guaranty bore date the 27th of June, three days afterwards. The natural construction of the terms of the warranty, I think is, that the note should be a good and available one to the plaintiff; not that it should be paid on demand, but that payment of it might be enforced. This would be the import of these terms in ordinary parlance. If an individual, upon inquiry, should say that a note of a particular individual was good, I apprehend all he would be understood to mean would be, that the maker was of unquestionable responsibility, not that his note would be promptly paid at maturity. A note is good, when the maker is solvent and able to pay it, and a warranty that it is good expresses that and no more; and it is incumbent upon the holder of such a note and guaranty, in order to charge the guarantor, to prove by legal evidence that the maker was not good, and that payment of the note could not be enforced from him. When the *233construction of the guaranty is once settled, there is no doubt as to the rule of law applicable to it. 19 Johns. R. 69. 4 Cowen, 173. 20 Johns. R. 365. 1 Wendell, 460. 11 id. 100, and the authorities referred to in those cases.

¶3Judgment of common pleas reversed.

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