MacKay v. Jamestown Gas Co.
MacKay v. Jamestown Gas Co.
Opinion of the Court
This is an appeal from a judgment against each defendant on a promissory note, dated January 28, 1914, due August 1, 1914, for $1,115.26, with interest at 7 per cent. Pending tbe action several payments were made on the note, and on January 16, 1917,
The main defense was that Grant did not have authority to malee the note for the gas company, and that his signature was without consideration. But the evidence clearly shows that at and prior to the time of the making of the note Grant was acting as the general agent, manager, secretary, and treasurer of the company, and hence he had ostensible authority to make the note; and the extension of time for payment of the debt from the date of the note until its maturity was ample consideration for the signature of Grant, and as he signed the note before its delivery and acceptance he became a joint maker, and not merely an indorser. Of course the defendant had ample opportunity to answer and to offer evidence to reduce the amount of the note by showing any mistake or error in the account for which it was given, but the answers do not aver any mistake in the note or in the account for which it was given, and the evidence does not show any error or mistake. The showing is that the note was given for the precise amount due and owing by the gas company to the plaintiff.
On the pleadings and the evidence and the whole record, it does not
Judgment affirmed and case remanded forthwith.
Concurring Opinion
(concurring specially). The plaintiff recovered judgment in this case against both A. D. Grant and the Jamestown Gas Company. The liability of Grant is conceded. He has not appealed. And the only question presented to this court is .whether Grant had authority to execute the note in behalf of the gas company. I fully concur in the conclusion reached by Mr. Justice Bobinson that Grant had ostensible authority to execute such note. I do not, however, concur in his obiter dicta regarding the character of liability assumed by a person who places his signature on the back of a negotiable instrument. The character of the liability so assumed is declared by §§ 6948 and 6949, Comp. Laws 1913, to be that of an indorser. All the members of the court, with the exception of Judge Bobinson, concur in the views expressed above.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.