Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

37 N.Y. 164

Pfeiffer v. . Adler

New York Court of Appeals

Decided September 5, 1867

New York Court of Appeals · decided 1867-09-05

Relies on Mallory v. . Gillett

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1867-09-05

How this case has been cited

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently January 1909

4 state decisions

2018671870188018901900decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1It does not appear that the husband left any property, or that the widow had any interest to subserve by assuming the payment of his debts. She was under no obligation to the plaintiffs, unless one was created by her unwritten promise to pay what she did not owe. The original demand was not extinguished by the arrangement, and *165 there was no such new consideration as would suffice to take the case out of the statute of frauds. The settlements which the plaintiffs were to aid her in negotiating, were of the debts of another, for which she was not liable and in which she had no personal concern. She was evidently in good credit; for the appellants were willing to trust her for the amount of her husband's debt and for all she was willing to purchase. A verbal promise to sell goods to a responsible party for their full value and on the usual terms, forms no consideration for an independent engagement to pay the antecedent debt of a third person. There is nothing in the facts found by the referee, to withdraw the agreement from the operation of the statute of frauds. (Mallory v. Gillett,21 N.Y. 412).

¶2The judgment should be affirmed.

¶3All the judges concurring, except BOCKES and GROVER, JJ., who were for reversal,

¶4Judgment affirmed. *166

/37/ny/164 · .json · Public domain