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6 Misc. 540

Marine v. Peyser

City of New York Municipal Court

Decided January 15, 1894

City of New York Municipal Court · decided 1894-01-15

<p>A case must be clear and certain in order to sustain a direction of a verdict by the court.</p> <p>In an action upon a promissory note against the maker and indorsers, the defense was that it was accommodation paper and had been diverted. The defendants were given the affirmative, and established by their proof that, the payees were engaged in doing work upon a building of the maker, and they being financially embarrassed so that they could not proceed, the note in suit was given them to raise money thereon to enable them to prosecute the work, hut that, instead of so doing, they gave it to plaintiff for an old debt. On cross-examination of the maker plaintiff introduced an agreement whereby one of the indorsers agreed to indorse notes specified in the original contract, and gave no further ■evidence. Meld, that it was error to direct a verdict for the plaintiff; that the questions whether the note had been diverted, and if so, to what extent plaintiff had paid value for it, should have been submitted to the jury. (Newburger, J., dissents.)</p>

Decided 1894-01-15

Newburger, J. (dissenting).

¶1This action is brought on a promissory note made by the defendant Peyser to the order of Dempsey and Smith, and indorsed by them and the defendants Eisenberg and Wolfe and by the Malone Stone Company, and held by the plaintiff.

¶2The defendants Peyser and Eisenberg put in separate answers, which admitted the making and indorsing of the note, but alleged that the said note was obtained by Dempsey and Smith, and that they fraudulently diverted the same.

¶3Upon the trial the defendants held the affirmative, and at the close of their testimony plaintiff’s counsel moved for the direction of a verdict in his favor, and the motion was granted and the verdict directed accordingly, and this appeal is taken from the judgment entered upon said verdict and from the order denying defendants’ motion for a new trial.

¶4The evidence clearly shows that the note was given and indorsed pursuant to the terms of a contract between the defendant Peyser and Dempsey and Smith, which contract was for certain labor to be performed and materials to be furnished by Dempsey and Smith to the defendant Peyser in the building of certain houses in this city, and the services so rendered and materials furnished were to be paid in certain installments.

¶5. The note was given as required by the terms of the contract, and the claim that Peyser was induced to make the note by the promise that the work that might prove defective should be remedied was not borne out by the testimony, nor would it warrant this court in holding it to be a diversion of the note in suit.

¶6The trial justice was justified in directing a verdict for the plaintiff.

¶7*546There are no exceptions in the case that would warrant us in disturbing the rulings of the trial justice.

¶8Judgment and order appealed from affirmed, with costs.

¶9Judgment reversed and new trial granted, with costs to the appellants to abide event.

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