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27 Ala. 208

Bryan v. Wilson

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided June 15, 1855

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1855-06-15

<p>[ACTION ON PKOSnSSORY NOTE BY PAYEE ACAINST MAKERS.]</p> <p>1. Pleading to amended complaint, without objection, waives error in its allowance.— After a demurrer has been sustained to the original complaint, and leave given to the plaintiff to amend, if the defendant pleads to. the amended or substituted complaint, without objecting to the leave to amend, or to the amendment itself, he thereby waives his right to revise on error the action of the court in allowing it.</p> <p>2. Thai plaintiff is not the party really interested in the note, good plea under Code.— A plea in bar by the makers of a promissory note, in a suit brought by the payee, that the plaintiff was not the party really interested in the note, was held bad on demurrer under the practice existing before the adoption of the Code, because the action was then required to be brought in the name of the party having the legal interest; but such a plea is now good under the Code, which requires (§ 2129) the suit to bo prosecuted “ in the name of the party really interested, whether he have the-legal title or not.”</p> <p>3. Agent may sue in his own name, on note given for 'money of principal lent by him without authority, and payable to himself as agent. — If an agent lends the money of his pirincipal without authority, and takes a promissory note for it payable to himself as agent, he may maintain an action on the note in his own name, unless it is shown that he has been in some way discharged from the liability thus incurred.</p> <p>4. Special plea of non est factuyi must be verified by affidavit. — A special plea, averring facts which amount to nothing more than a denial of the'execution of the note sued on in such a manner as to make it binding on the defendants, is bad on demurrer unless verified by affidavit.</p> <p>5. Plea which does not go as far as it professes is bad on demurrer. — In a'suit against three, two of the defendants filed a special plea, commencing, “And the said D. and S;, for separate plea in this behalf, by leave of the court pleaded, say actio non, because they say,” &c., and concluding, — “ and so the said D. and S. say, that as to them, the said note is void,” &e.: Held, that the plea was bad on.demurrer, because it professed to answer the action, audio constitute a bar as to all the defendants,.[while it 'was good only as to two of them.</p>

Relies on Tomkies v. Reynolds · Grigsby's ex. v. Nance · Deshler v. Hodges

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1855-06-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 20 later decisions — most recently December 1917

20 state decisions

701855186018701880189019001910decided

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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RICE, J.

¶1The right of the appellants to revise the action of the court below, in allowing the amendment of the complaint, was waived' by their filing pleas to the amended complaint, without making any objection to the leave to amend, or to the amendment itself. Such points cannot be raised for the first time in this court, but must be made in the primary court, and presented by exception duly taken ; as was done in Leaird v. Moore, decided at the present term.

¶2Until the Code went into effect, the general rule was observed, that an action for the breach of a contract must be brought in the name of the person having the legal interest in it. — Fortune v. Brazier, 10 Ala. 791.

¶3But section 2129 of the Code provides, that “ Every action founded upon a promissory note, bond, or other contract, express or implied, for the payment of money, must be prosecuted in the name of the party really interested, whether he have the legal title or not,” &c.

¶4Before the Code took effect, a plea by the makers of a promissory note, in a r suit thereon by the payee, that “ the plaintiff is not the party really interested in said note”, would have been held bad on demurrer.- — Bancroft v. Paine, 15 Ala. 834. But under the section of the Code above cited, we are constrained to hold that such a plea is good in bar, even in a suit brought in the name of the payee of a promissory note.

¶5We doom it just to say, that when the payee takes issue on such plea, the mere introduction of the note as evidence will make out a prima facie case for him; for where a note is payable to the plaintiff, it is an admission that he is entitled to receive the amount thereof. — Grigsby v. Nance, 3 Ala. 347.

¶6An agent may have a special interest or property in a promissory note given to him for money of his principal, which he has lent without authority; and whenever he has such interest or property in such note, he may sue upon it.— Tompkies v. Reynolds, 17 Ala. 109.

¶7*215The general rule, that an agent shall not sue on contracts made by him in the name and on the behalf of his principal, is admitted. But there are several classes o£ cases, where the agent acquires personal rights, and may maintain an action upon the contract in his own name, without any distinction, whether his principal is, or is not, entitled also to similar rights and remedies on the same contract. One of these classes is, where the promise is in writing, and ma»de to the agent by name, as well as description of office. Another class is, where the agent has made a contract, in the subject-matter of which he has a special interest or property, whether he professed at the time to be acting for himself or not.- — Story on Agency, § 393; Fortune v. Brazier, 10 Ala. 791; Bancroft v. Paine, 15 ib. 834; Nabors v. Shippey, 15 ib. 293.

¶8In Tompkies v. Reynolds, 17 Ala. 109, it was held, that if an executor or administrator lends the money or choses in action of the estate, without authority to do so, it is a conversion for which he becomes personally liable, and he may in such case sue on the written contract in his own name, notwithstanding he has resigned or been removed from the administration, unless it be shown that he has. in some way been discharged from the liability thus incurred. It was further held, that those representing the estate had the right (if they elected so to do) to interpose, in a proper manner, to arrest the payment to the removed executor, and claim the contract as a portion of the estate.

¶9In Sorrelle v. Elmes, 6 Ala. 706, it was held, that pleas which amount to nothing more than a denial of an execution of the note sued on, in such a manner as to be binding on the defendant, are bad, unless they are verified by the affidavit required by the statute.

¶10The pleas in this case are not verified by any affidavit. There is no averment in any of them, that the plaintiff has been discharged from the- liability which he may have incurred in consequence of acting without authority, as alleged in some of the pleas. It is not shown or averred that his action has been repudiated by the lodge, or that his authority has been revoked by it, or that it has refused to approve of his conduct in taking the note sued on. It is not averred in the third, fourth, fifth, .sixth or seventh plea, that the plaintiff has no interest in the note.

¶11*216We think the principles on which the cases of Tomkies v. Reynolds and Sorrelle v. Elmes, above cited, were decided, may well be applied to the present case; and that under the application of these principles, .the third, fourth, fifth and sixth pleas are bad. — Fletcher v. Edson, 8 Vermont R. 294.

¶12The seventh plea is bad, because it does not constitute a defence to the extent to which it professes to go. It professes and undertakes to answer the action, and to constitute a bar as to all the defendants; but in truth it makes no answer as to one of the defendants. — Deshler v. Hodges, 3 Ala. 509.

¶13We do not wish to be understood as deciding that there is no other valid objection to the third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh pleas, than we have above specified. Without examining any other objections to them than those above shown, we decide that they arc bad, and that the court below did not err in sustaining the demurrers to them.

¶14For the error in sustaining the demurrer to the second plea, the judgment is reversed, and the cause remanded.

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