Masser v. Bowen

Decided July 1, 1858

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania · decided 1858-07-01

John Bowen brought an action of assumpsit against Jacob B. Masser. On the trial of this cause the plaintiff gave in evidence various indebtedness by the defendant on note, book account, &c., and closed. The defendant then offered in evidence a check drawn by himself in favour of the plaintiff, endorsed by and paid to him for $150. This was offered as evidence of a payment on the indebtedness to the plaintiff.

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Decided 1858-07-01

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently November 1936

1 federal appellate · 5 state decisions

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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¶1The opinion of the court was delivered by

Lowrie, J.

¶2The plaintiff below having shown that the defendant was indebted to him, we must presume that a payment made to him by the defendant, after such debt accrued, was made on account of the debt. If it was really made on some other account, we must have some evidence of this before we can change the presumption.

¶3A check by the defendant to the plaintiff’s order, endorsed by him and paid, is evidence that the amount of it was paid to the plaintiff on account of such debt as we know to have existed, and it cannot be excluded because the court may think it belongs to a *129different transaction. If the plaintiff gives evidence that it was given on another account, the jury must decide how the fact is. We think the check ought to have gone to the jury.

¶4Judgment reversed and a new trial awarded.