Sackett v. Fast
Sackett v. Fast
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The plaintiff caused a judgment to be entered on a promissory note containing a warrant of attorney to which the names Francis M. Fast and Jacob Cover were signed. Cover presented a petition and later a supplemental petition averring that the said note was a forgery as to him and prayed’that the judgment might be opened. The plaintiff filed an answer in which she averred that she expected to be able to prove at the trial that Cover signed the note. The court below subsequently made the following order: "After due consideration of the testimony, the rule is hereby made absolute and the judgment is opened as to Jacob Cover to permit him to make his defense. The note on which judgment was confessed to stand as the statement or narr. and the petition and supplemental petition to stand as an affidavit of defense. Let the defendant enter his plea. Same day defendant pleads non assumpsit.”
On the trial of the issue the jury found a verdict in favor of the plaintiff and the learned court refused a motion for a new trial and entered judgment on the verdict, and from that judgment Cover appealed. Counsel for appellant states the question involved as follows: “In a feigned issue to determine whether a note is a forgery it is error for the court to instruct the jury that the plaintiff is entitled to recover in any one of three events: 1. If the defendant signed the note. 2. If he authorized someone to sign it for him. 3. If he permitted the note to be delivered, knowing that his name was written thereon and to refuse to instruct that the verdict should be for the defendant unless the jury found that the defendant signed the note or authorized someone to sign it for him.
“Such instruction is also erroneous when the plaintiff in a pleading filed by her, under a rule of court, admitted that defendant did not authorize the signing of the note.”
The learned counsel concedes in his argument that if the de
The learned counsel for appellant raises the question by defendant’s first point that a forged instrument cannot be ratified by the party whose signature has been forged. But if the facts were as stated in the plaintiff’s point, there was no question of forgery in the case. Suppose that Francis M. Fast did make the note and sign his own name and that of Jacob Cover to it without Cover being present or having any knowledge of it and then Fast presented the note to Cover and procured his consent to the delivery of the note to the plaintiff’s agent and Cover saw it so delivered, there would be no forgery in such a transaction and Cover’s approval of it before there was any intention or attempt to fraudulently deliver the note would exclude any attempt to ratify a forgery. But the present case does not require going to the extent stated in the above supposition because the evidence warranted the jury in finding that the note was made in the presence of W. C. Sackett, agent for plaintiff, Francis M. Fast and Jacob Cover and that Cover knew it was to be delivered for the benefit of the plaintiff and actually saw it delivered to her agent in exchange for the other note. If
We are surprised to hear able counsel contend that if a man stands by and consents, either by words or impliedly, to his name being signed to a note and to the delivery of that note for value to one who believes the signature to be genuine, that such person can thereafter escape liability on the ground that he did not sign the note nor give prior authority to someone to sign it for him. We think the law is not so: Fitzpatrick v. Engard et al., 175 Pa. 393.
In Story on Agency, sec. 51, it is said: “If the principal is present and verbally or impliedly authorizes his agent to fix his name to a deed it becomes the deed of the principal and is as much binding on him as if he had personally sealed and executed it.” See also Meacham on Agency, sec. 96, citing many American and English cases; also Gardner v. Gardner, 59 Mass. 483. But under the evidence the jury could find a state of facts which would estop Cover from denying that he signed the note. “If one by his acts, or silence, or negligence, misleads another, or in any manner effects a transaction whereby an innocent person suffers loss, the blamable party must bear it:” Story’s Equity Jurisprudence, secs. 386, 387. See also Howie v. Lewis, 14 Pa. Superior Ct. 232.
The appellant’s counsel contends on a very fine technical theory evolved for this case that the plaintiff could not recover without proving that Cover signed the note because of what is called an admission in her answer to Cover’s petition and supplemental petition. In considering this question it should be borne in mind that the plaintiff did not pretend to have any personal knowledge of what took place at the time the note was made and delivered to her agent. In her answer she said: “That she did not see Jacob Cover sign the note but was sure he
The assignments of error are all dismissed and the judgment is affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.