Cole v. Sater
Cole v. Sater
Opinion of the Court
By the Court.
Sater sued Peter H. S. B. Chenoweth on a promissory note, and summoned the Defendants, Cole and Joseph E. Albough, as garnishees. A referee, was appointed to take and report the disclosures of the garnishees. The disclosure of Cole shows that he had executed and delivered to the principal Defendant Chenoweth his promissory note for $360, November 14, 1857, due in one year, with interest at two per cent, per month. Also that he had made one payment on the note of $91.90. As the examination of Cole proceeded, it appeared that the note was given for the purchase price of certain lands conveyed by Cheno-weth to Cole, and that Cole claimed that the consideration of the note had failed by Chenoweth not having title to the land conveyed. It also appeared that part of the land conveyed to Cole by the Defendant Chenoweth was incumbered by amort-gage to Oliver Tripp, and that there was an agreement between Cole and Chenoweth that the debt due from Cole to Chenoweth on the note should be paid to Tripp, and endorsed upon the incumbrance, which amounted to over four hundred dollars. The garnishee Cole was examined at length touching these matters by the Plaintiff, and other witnesses were offered -to disprove his statements, or destroy the effect of them as a defence to the note as against Chenoweth’s creditor.
The garnishee, JosephsE. Albough, was sworn, and disclosed the fact that the note of Cole to Chenoweth had been pledged to him by Chenoweth to secure the payment of '$18.50, and was then in his hands as such pledge.
Objections were interposed before the referee to the cross-examination of the garnishee Cole, and also by the attorney for Cole, to much of the examination that was had by the Plaintiff.
The Court overruled all these motions, and heard the case upon the whole report of the referee.
The Plaintiff then offered in evidence the two deeds from Chenoweth to Cole, of the land for which'the note was given, which were objected to, but received by the Court.
The counsel for Cole then offered to prove that Tripp had commenced to foreclose his mortgage for four hundred dollars against the land of Cole, and that Cole had been compelled to, and had paid the same, to relieve his land, &c. This was objectedto by the Plaintiff, and ruled out by the Court.
The Court then ordered judgment against Cole for the amount due on the note, and against Albough, that he deliver the note to the Sheriff on payment by the Sheriff of his lien upon the same of $18.80 and interest, and directed the Sheriff to pay the same at the expense of the Plaintiff, and to file the note for cancellation, &c. The Court also awarded costs against Cole, to the amount of $20.82.
It is unnecessary to enter into any discussion of the rights of garnishees under our old Statute, since the cases of Banning vs. Sibley, 3 Min. R. 380; Pioneer Print. Co. vs. Sanborn, French & Lund, Id. 413; Chase vs. North & Carll, 4 Min. R. 381, decided in this Court. The whole subject has been fully considered, and] it has been determined that the garnishee must be tried upon his disclosure, and cannot be contradicted, and that if his evidence leaves any doubt of his indebtedness, he must be discharged. In this case he sets up two defences to the note, and claims that both are reasons why he should not pay the note to Chenoweth or his creditors. "Whether these defences, or either of them, are sufficient in the law to defeat a recovery upon the note", it is not necessary
The judgment against Cole was unauthorized under the old or the new act, and must bo reversed.
The judgment against the garnishee Albough, requires a slight modification. It requires the Sheriff to pay to the garnishee the amount of his lien upon the note, at the expense of the Plaintiff. The Statute says the Plaintiff may be allowed,
Ordered accordingly.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- William Cole, against Isaac N. Sater
- Status
- Published