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35 Ind. 316

Dunlap v. McNeil

Indiana Supreme Court

Decided May 15, 1871

Indiana Supreme Court · decided 1871-05-15

<p>Partnership.—Contract.—A. and B. were partners. They dissolved partnership, and B. executed an agreement to A. that he would pay all the debts against the firm, and C. signed the agreement as surety for B.</p> <p>Held, that the creditors of the firm were entitled to the benefit of the agreement, and that a creditor might maintain an action against B. and his surety for the amount of his debt.</p>

Relies on Davis v. Calloway · Devol v. McIntosh · McMillan v. Bull's Head Bank

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1871-05-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently March 1910

3 state decisions

1018711880189019001910decided

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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Downey, C. J.

¶1Dunlap brought an action in the court below against Scott McNeil, John R. McNeil, and Newton W. Davidson, alleging in his complaint 'that Scott McNeil and Davidson were partners; that they dissolved partnership; and that as a part of the consideration for so doing, the remaining partner, Scott McNeil, with John R. McNeil as his surety, executed the following agreement to Davidson, viz.:

¶2“Harveysburgh, Ind., Sept. 15th, 1868.

¶3I do hei-eby agree to N. W. Davidson to pay all debts against the firm of Davidson & McNeil.

¶4Scott McNeil.

¶5Security, John R. McNeil.”

¶6It is further alleged that the firm of Davidson and Me-' Neil, were, at the date of said agreement, indebted to John Dunlap, the plaintiff, in the sum of three hundred and twelve dollars.

¶7The separate demurrer of John R. McNeil was sustained to the complaint, which presents the only question in this court. The brief of the appellee contains two propositions, viz.:

¶81st. The contract of the appellee is one of guaranty.

¶9“ 2d. A guarantor is only liable after the principal is exhausted.”

¶10We do not think that the contract is one of guaranty on the part of John-R. McNeil, but of suretyship. See McMillan v. The Bull’s Head Bank, 32 Ind. 11. Dunlap had the right to sue on the contract. It has been decided by *317this court in Davis v. Calloway, 30 Ind. 112, that “a person for whose benefit a contract is made may maintain an action thereon.” In Devol v. McIntosh, 23 Ind. 529, a case very much like this, it is held that the creditors of a firm are entitled to the benefit of a covenant from the remaining partner and his surety, to the retiring partner, to pay the debts of the firm.

y. M. Rabb, for appellant.T. F. Davidson, for appellee.

¶11We hold that there is no reason why John R. McNeil is not liable and should not have been a defendant, as well as his principal.

¶12The judgment is reversed, with costs, and the cause remanded to the court below with directions to overrule the demurrer, and for further proceedings.

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