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54 Ala. 71

Hunter v. Wood

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided December 15, 1875

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1875-12-15

Tried before Hon. Wi. H. Smith. This was a suit brought by appellee on a promissory note, payable on demand, on which were indorsed three payments. The appellant filed a plea of non assumpsit, and a special plea that no demand had been made before suit brought. Issue was joined upon the first plea, and the bill of exceptions recites that a demurrer was sustained to the second plea, but the record discloses no action on the demurrer.

Relies on Petty v. Dill · Wells v. Abernethy · Maxcy v. Knight

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1875-12-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently June 1938

4 state decisions

201875188018901900191019201930decided

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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MANNING, J.

¶1The error assigned upon a supposed judgment of the circuit court, sustaining a demurrer to the plea, is not properly presented by the record of this cause. The transcript of the minutes of the court, where only such judgment can legally appear if it was rendered, does not contain it; and it cannot be shown by a recital that it was rendered, made in the bill of exceptions.—Petty v. Dill, 53 Ala. 641.

¶2The demurrer is a part of the pleading in the suit, and the decision of the court, whether sustaining or overruling the demurrer, should appear in the record as regularly made, whether any bill of exceptions be taken or not, and should not be set forth in any bill of exceptions.

¶3Interest runs on a note payable on demand only from the time when demand is made, or suit upon it brought.—Maxey v. Knight, 18 Ala. 300; Dodge v. Perkins, 9 Pick. 369; Brefogle v. Beckley, 16 Serg. & R. 264; Dillon v. Dudley, 1 Marsh. (Ky.) R. 66. And it makes no difference that the note was given, as this one seems to have been, for money received at the time it was made.—Schmidt v. Limehouse, 2 Bailey, 276; Pullen v. Chase, 4Pike (Ark.) 210.

¶4The court, therefore, erred in its instructions to the jury, that plaintiff below was entitled to interest from the day *73next after the date of the note, and in refusing the second charge asked on behalf of defendant below.

¶5It was not error to refuse the third charge asked for defendants below. It has been long settled, whether logically or not, that suit on a note payable on demand may be brought without a previous request of payment, the bringing a suit being itself considered a lawful demand.—Maxey v. Knight, supra; Hunt v. Nevers, 15 Pick. 500; Wells v. Abernathy, 5 Conn. 222.

¶6As we suppose that upon a re-trial of the cause, express evidence will be given on the subject of demand, it is unnecessary to consider whether the credits on the note can be regarded as evidence of a demand of more than was paid.

¶7Judgment reversed, and cause remanded.

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