Reyman v. Parker
Reyman v. Parker
Opinion of the Court
The appellant and Robert Smith were sued by the appellee, Parker, upon a promissory note. Smith made-default, and the appellant filed a verified answer denying the execution of the note.
The appellee proved by Smith that the appellant signed the-note, and he further testified that “ Parker filled up the note-on or about the 15th day of June, 1876, at his house, in Salem, and then I took it to Mr. Reyman’s farm, near Salem, and
The appellant offered to prove by several witnesses that about May 15th, 1876, when John Moore and others were at his place, Smith came there to obtain appellant’s signature to a note as surety; that he did sign a note, but that it was an entirely different note from the one sued on. This evidence was excluded.
The appellee’s counsel attempt to defend this ruling, on the ground that what was said on May 15th can not be competent as affecting a transaction which did not take place until the 15th day of June. This-position rests entirely upon an undue assumption. If the assumption were conceded to be valid, doubtless the conclusion would follow, but the assumption can not be conceded to be a valid one. This, we say, because the uncontradicted testimony of the appellee’s witness Smith was that he visited appellant’s place but once for the purpose of getting him to become his surety, and this was the testimony of the appellant and his witnesses. In the face of this evidence counsel have no right to assume that the transaction took place on the 15th day of June, for it is perfectly clear that if Smith was at appellant’s place but once for the purpose of obtaining his signature to a note, he had a right to show what was done at that time.
If there was, as the evidence admitted showed and that offered would have also shown, only one note ever signed by the appellant as surety for Smith, he undoubtedly had a right to show that the note signed by him as Smith’s surety was not the note sued on. The execution of the note on which
Judgment reversed, with instructions to sustain appellant’s motion for a new trial.
END OF THE NOVEMBER TERM, 1885.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.