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24 Ill. 163

Smith v. Doty

Illinois Supreme Court

Decided April 15, 1860

Illinois Supreme Court · decided 1860-04-15

This is an appeal from an order of the Ogle Circuit Court, sustaining a demurrer to a plea of the defendants below. The case in the Circuit Court was an action of assumpsit.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1860-04-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 10 later decisions — most recently March 1903

9 state decisions

4018601870188018901900decided

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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Catón, C. J.

¶1We are of opinion that both the pleas in this record were bad. The substance of both pleas is, that the note declared on was given in consideration of the assignment of another note, which had been given by one Higly to the plaintiff; and that that note was given without consideration, and was therefore void, while the plaintiff fraudulently represented that it was good and collectable, and hence this note was given without consideration. These pleas do not show a want or failure of consideration. For aught that appears here, Smith, to whom the first note was assigned, may have collected the full amount of it, and even assuming that he has not already collected that note, the facts shown would not constitute a defense to that note, in an action by Smith against Higly upon it. There is no pretense that there was any fraud in procuring the execution of that note. All that is shown is, that it was given without consideration. This is not sufficient to constitute a defense to a note in the hands of -an assignee. In addition to that, it must be shown that the note was assigned after it became due, or that the plaintiff knew that it was given without consideration. Neither of these facts are shown, and, in this case, if the last were shown, it would destroy the defense altogether, for if Smith knew that the note was given without consideration, he then took it at his own risk, and we are by no means clear that the same consequences would not follow, if he took it after it was due, with that taint of dishonor upon it.

¶2Again, by these pleas, the defendants are attempting to rescind the contract by which the Higly note was assigned to Smith. They could not do this without putting Doty in statu quo. In order to do this, they should have brought the Higly note into court with their pleas, re-assigned, or with an offer to re-assign.

¶3We are of opinion that the demurrer was properly sustained, and the judgment must be affirmed.

¶4Judgment affirmed,.

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