Colonna v. Morrissey
Colonna v. Morrissey
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The plaintiff having obtained a judgment against Edward Morrissey caused an execution attachment to be issued summoning John F. Zeh, as garnishee.. He recovered a verdict and judgment against the garnishee and the latter appeals. The plaintiff offered at the trial no evidence other than that of the testimony of the garnishee, whom he called for cross-examination. The testimony thus elicited disclosed that Zeh and Morrissey, the defendant, had certain business transactions which had terminated prior to July 24, 1915, upon which day they had a settlement and it was found that there was a balance due Morrissey of four hundred ($400) dollars, for the amount of which balance Zeh gave to Morrissey his negotiable promissory note, bearing the date July 24, 1915, payable three months after date. The witness testified that under the contract between him and Morrissey this last payment was to be made by a note and that the note which he gave closed the transaction. He further testified that Morrissey, upon the same day that the note was given, sold it to the North Western Trust Company and that when the note became due in October he (Zeh) paid the amount of the note to the trust com
There was not outside of the testimony of Zeh a scintilla of evidence that he was indebted to Morrissey. Zeh had testified that he had, on July 24, 1915, given Morrissey a note for four hundred ($400) dollars payable three months after date, which note was not due until after the execution attachment was served upon him. Money owing upon a promissory note is liable to be attached in the hands of the maker before maturity at the suit of a creditor of the payee or holder, but such attachment is subject to the rights of a bona fide holder for value without .notice: Bell v. Binding & Mailing Co., 10 Pa. Su
The judgment is reversed and the record is remitted to the court below with direction to enter judgment in favor of the defendant garnishee non obstante veredicto.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Colonna v. Morrissey. Zeh
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- 2 cases
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- Syllabus
- Attachment execution — Proof of debt of garnishee — Payment by promissory note — Evidence. On the trial of an issue raised in an attachment-execution, where the only evidence of the debt of the garnishee, is the testimony of the latter, to the effect that prior to the-attachment, he owed the debtor a certain sum, which he paid with a promissory note, which was afterwards discounted in due course, it is error, in the absence of any proof of fraud, to submit to a jury, the questions of whether or not the note was given in payment of the original debt upon the day it bore date, and whether the note was paid, when it became due, to a bona fide holder without notice before its maturity. Money owing upon a promissory note is liable to be attached in the hands of the maker before maturity at the suit of a creditor of the payee or holder, but such attachment is subject to the rights of a bona fide holder for value without notice. Promissory notes — Fraud—Presumption. Fraud is not to be presumed, in the absence of any evidence or circumstances tending to warrant a finding that it exists.