4 CAL 277 - Lightstone v. Laurencel

How this case has been cited

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently March 1941

3 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.

Mr. Justice Heydeneeldt

¶1delivered the opinion of the Court.

Mr. Ch. J. Murray concurred.

¶2The note sued on is written in the Spanish language. The defendant Laurencel, is the maker. The other defendant, Sansevaine, expresses his liability by writing, in the Spanish language, the words, ‘ ‘Soy fiador la arriba expresada canUdad,” which, translated, means, “I am guarantor for the amount herein named.” The word “fiador,” according to Escriche, is defined to be, “he who undertakes for the obligation of another, taking upon himself the fulfillment thereof, in case of the non-compliance of the party contracting,”

¶3This is, in effect, the definition of the English words guarantor, or indorser, and the liability of the one must be fixed in the same manner as that of the other.

¶4The declaration in this case, treats both defendants as joint makers of the note, and there is, therefore, no allegation of demand and notice which is necessary to fix the liability of the defendant Sansevaine. The declaration is consequently insufficient to support the judgment. (See Riggs v. Waldo, 2 Cal. 485.)

¶5Judgment reversed and cause remanded.