Allen v. Burgener
Allen v. Burgener
Opinion of the Court
Plaintiffs are the holders by indorsement of three negotiable promissory notes executed in February, 1899, and due respectively January 1, 1900, January 1, 1901, and January 1, 1902. The notes, have not been paid and this suit was brought in December, 1909, against the payee who before maturity sold and indorsed the notes to plaintiffs. All of the notes in substance and legal effect were the same. The indorsement on the back of the one first due was as follows:
“For value rec’d I hereby guarantee the payment of the within note and assign by interest in it to Geo. P. Allen and Son.” (signed) Conrad O. Burgener.
A demurrer to the petition was sustained and the court oh plaintiffs’ refusal to plead further rendered judgment for defendant.
The question for our decision is this: Is the petition fatally defective in failing to allege demand on the maker and notice of dishonor to the indorser? The solution of the question is to be determined by the law in force prior to the passage in 1905, of the Negotiable In. strument Act. The rule in this state is that an express guaranty of payment whether by a separate instrument or indorsed on the note itself by the payee does not entitle the payee to notice of the default of the maker. [20 Cyc. of Law and Proc., 1469.] In Airey v. Pearson, 37
In Maddox v. Duncan, 143 Mo. 613, the indorsement before the court was this: “Waiving notice and protest and demand, I assign the within note to Samuel Grant for value received and I guarantee the payment of it.” We do not- agree with the view of respondent, evidently shared by the learned trial judge that the decision in the Maddox case overturned the rule of the Airey and Wright cases. The question before the court was whether or not payments on a promissory note by the maker, so as to prevent the plea of the Statute of Limitations by him, would arrest the running of the statute in favor of the indorser. It was held, as in the Airey case, that the expressed obligation of the indorser to guarantee the payment of the note did not make him a guarantor in the technical sense of that term and that his status still was that of an indorser. But there is no suggestion in the opinion of the thought that the obligation of the indorser to guarantee payment did not con
The judgment is reversed and the cause remanded.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.