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69 Mo. 429

Moore v. Hutchinson

Supreme Court of Missouri

Decided April 15, 1879

Supreme Court of Missouri · decided 1879-04-15

— Hon. G. W. Miller, Judge. The plaintiff testified that he loaned the money to the defendants, they agreed to pay him one per cent, a month, and the note-was drawn that way — he scratched the word “ one ” out and by so doing he thought it would be an advantage to them.

Relies on Capital Bank v. Armstrong · Haskell v. Champion · Evans v. Foreman

Cited in Bouvier (1914)’s definition of “Alteration”

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1879-04-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 24 later decisions — most recently March 1932

24 state decisions

801879188018901900191019201930decided

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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Sherwood, C. J.

¶1Action before a justice of the peace on a promissory note.

¶2I. It was perfectly competent for defendants to file their plea of non est factum for the first time in the circuit *430court, since tbe trial iu tbe circuit court was de novo. Phillips v. Bliss, 32 Mo. 427.

¶3II Tbe payee of the note had no right to alter tbe note in tbe slightest particular, without the consent of all who were interested; and such unwarranted alteration rendered the note null in his hands, no matter how pure his motives in making the alteration. Haskell v. Champion, 30 Mo. 136; Evans v. Foreman, 60 Mo. 449; Capital Bank v. Armstrong, 62 Mo. 59; German Bank v. Dunn, 62 Mo. 79.

¶4III. The judgment recovered by plaintiff cannot stánd, because there is no evidence to support it; his own testimony showing that he altered the note by striking out the word “ one,” which rate af interest the note bore per month. Aud the motion for a new trial called attention to the fact that the verdict was contrary to the evidence. Under such circumstances this court interferes, regardless of the declarations of law given, or if none were given. Hart v. Leavenworth, 11 Mo. 629; Robbins v. Phillips, 68 Mo. 100. Judgment reversed.

All concur.

¶5Reversed.

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