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45 Me. 75

Longfellow v. Andrews

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine

Decided July 1, 1858

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine · decided 1858-07-01

On facts agreed. The action is Assumpsit. The defendants are declared against as acceptors of a bill of exchange, dated September 2, 1857, drawn by Jacob Clark, for §539,91, payable in sixty days to the order of the drawer, by whom it was indorsed; and was directed to defendants, at Boston. It appears that plaintiff was an accommodation indorser, and that the bill was discounted by an agent of the Calais Bank, for the Bank.

Decided 1858-07-01

¶1The opinion of the Court was drawn up by

Hathaway, J.

¶2Assumpsit, by the indorser, against the acceptors of a bill of exchange.

¶3*76The bill was duly protested, and the defendants were liable to pay it to the Calais Bank, Dec. 7,1857, when this suit was commenced. At that time, the plaintiff was liable, as indorser, to the holder of the bill, but he had no such interest in the bill as would enable him to maintain an action on it, in his own name, until he paid it, Jan. 2, 1858.

¶4The authority which the president of the bank gave him, Jan. 5, 1858, “to prosecute this suit, at the risk and expense of the plaintiff,” was nugatory. The bank, then, had no interest in the matter, nor any power to do any thing to vary the legal rights of the parties in this action. As Mr. Chief Justice Weston said, in Bradford & al. v. Bucknam, 3 Fairf. 15, “ The objection, taken to the right of the plaintiff to recover, is not founded on the merits of the case, but, with every disposition to sustain the action, we are unable to discover any legal ground which would justify it, at the time it was brought.” The cases cited as authorities, by the plaintiff’s counsel, are very materially different from this case. The action having been prematurely commenced, a nonsuit must be entered. Plaintiff nonsuit.

Tenney, C. J., Rice, Appleton, Cutting, and Goodenow, J. J., concurred.
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