Brooks v. Merchants N. Bank

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Brooks v. Merchants N. Bank, 125 Pa. 394 (Pa. 1889)
17 A. 418; 1889 Pa. LEXIS 729
Clark, McCollum, Mitchell, Paxson, Sterrett

Brooks v. Merchants N. Bank

Opinion of the Court

Per Curiam:

The defendant’s affidavit does not disclose any defence. "While she was not liable upon the original notes by reason of her coverture, yet when the notes were renewed the case was different. The notes sued upon were given since the passage of the act of June 3, 1887, P. L. 332. The effect of said act was to make a married woman’s obligation binding upon her, unless it be as “accommodation indorser, guarantor,-or surety of another; ” in this case she was neither. The notes in question were the notes of a firm of which she was a member, and the moral obligation to pay the notes given during coverture was a sufficient consideration for the renewal notes given since the passage of the act of 1887.

The objection that the statement of plaintiff’s claim was signed by Hartman Baker, as an individual, and not as cashier, is purely technical, and we do not think entitled to much weight in view of the fact that there was a scroll appended to Mr. Baker’s name, which is recognized among banks as the equivalent .of the word “cashier.” The plaintiff bank was of course a corporation, and -as the defendant well knew, could only act through its officers. As she was a customer of the bank, it is not a strained presumption to assume that she knew Baker was the cashier, and that the scroll was intended to designate his official position. At the same time we regard it as a very loose way of signing legal papers, and it would be more honored in the breach than in the observance. As, however, the defendant does not set up any defence whatever, we do not feel disposed to reverse this judgment for such a technicality.

Judgment affirmed.

Reference

Full Case Name
MARTHA BROOKS v. MERCHANTS N. BANK
Cited By
10 cases
Status
Published
Syllabus
1. Promissory notes given subsequently to the act of June 3, 1887, P. L. 832, by a firm of which a married woman is a member, in renewal of notes given by the same firm prior to said act, are valid as against the married woman, the moral obligation to pay the original notes being a sufficient consideration for the renewals. (a) In an action of assumpsit by a bank, the statement of claim was signed by the cashier but without the word “cashier” added to the signature and without an averment in the statement that the affiant was the cashier. (b) The affidavit of defence alleging insufficiency of the statement, a rule for judgment was made absolute, and an order was entered at the time permitting the word “cashier” to-be added to the affiant’s signature. 2. As the objection to the statement was purely technical, and the defendants, being customers of the bank, were presumed to know that the plaintiff was a corporation which could act only through its officers and that the person signing the statement was its cashier, no valid defence being made on the merits, the judgment would not be reversed.