Smith v. Pearson
Smith v. Pearson
Opinion of the Court
A promise to extend the debt in consideration of the actual receipt of interest in advance, or of value in any other form, is binding on the creditor, and will discharge the surety. (2 Hare & Wall. Lead. Cases, 468, and cases cited; Abel v. Alexander, 15 Amer. Rep. 277.) If the plaintiff received the seventy dollars interest in advance, there was a valuable consideration for the extension, and the contract was binding on the plaintiff.
G- F. & W- H. Sharp, for the Respondent.
The action is against the defendant as endorser of a promissory note, and the defense relied upon is that the plaintiff, for a valuable consideration, made an agreement with the makers of the note, without the consent of the endorser, for an extension of the time and a change in the mode of payment.
At the trial there was evidence tending to prove that, without the consent of the endorser, the plaintiff entered into a parol agreement with the makers of the note to the effect that in consid
While it is true that a parol promise to pay the additional interest could not have been enforced under our statute, yet if the plaintiff, without the consent of the defendant, in fact received from the makers of the note an additional sum of money, which they were not otherwise bound to pay, as a considération for his promise to extend the time of payment, no reason is perceived ivhy the contract for an extension, Avhen executed by the makers of the note, was not binding and obligatory as betAveen the parties to the agreement. The fact that it was termed additional interest does not vary the transaction, as the fact remains that the plaintiff has received a sum of money as a consideration for the extension of the time of payment.
The Court erred in directing a verdict for the plaintiff.
Judgment and order reversed, and cause remanded for a new trial.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- ALFRED W. SMITH v. JOHN W. PEARSON
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Release of Endorser of Hote. —■ Even if a parol agreement to pay an additional rate of interest on a promissory note is not a good consideration for a promise to extend the time for its payment, so as to release an endorser, yet if the holder, without the consent of the endorser, in fact receives an additional sum of money as such interest, which the maker was not hound to pay, as a consideration for a promise to extend the time of payment, the endorser is released.