Estate of Dutton
Estate of Dutton
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
Three questions are raised by the assignments of error. They are (1) whether Larkin was a competent witness to testify to matters occurring between himself and Dutton and Singleton in the lifetime of Beatty, (2) whether the mortgage from Dutton to Singleton on October 31, 1882, operated as an equitable assignment of the former’s interest in the recognizance and (3) whether Dutton’s assignment to Beatty on January 21,1884, was subject to the equity of Singleton founded upon the loan and mortgage. Questions 1 and 2 were not discussed on the argument at bar, nor in the appellant’s paper-book. Prom this we might infer an abandonment of the assignments of error which raised them. The auditor held that Larkin was a competent witness, that the
The third question was the one to which the argument of the appellant was exclusively directed. In considering it we must not lose sight of the fact that the assignment of the recognizance to Beatty was made as collateral security for a pre-existing debt, and that it was not shown that there was a.consideration for it. The appellant, however, contends that inasmuch as the assignment and the bond conditioned for the payment of the debt in one month from the date thereof were executed on the same day, the auditor should have found as a fact that there was an extension of the time for the payment of the debt, and that such extension was the consideration for the assignment. But this was not a necessary sequence from the facts. “ Consideration like every other part of a contract must be the result of agreement. The parties must understand and be influenced to the particular action by something of value or convenience and inconvenience recognized by all of them as the moving cause. That which is a mere fortuitous result flowing accidentally from an arrangement, but in no degree prompting the actors to it, is not to be esteemed a legal consideration: ” Kirkpatrick v. Muirhead, 16 Pa. 126. The cases cited by the auditor as bearing upon the question under consideration sustain his conclusion that “in order that an extension of time shall be a good and valid consideration it must be contracted for.” Besides, whether the extension of time was the consideration of the assignment
Decree affirmed and appeal dismissed, the costs to be paid by the appellant.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Estate of Jonathan Dutton, Appeal of George W. Beatty
- Cited By
- 6 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Evidence — Competency of witness — Assignment of interest in recognizance — Act of May 23, 1887, sec. 5, clause e, P. L. 158. Where a person having an interest in a recognizance in partition, but no interest in the land, executes a mortgage of a supposed interest in the land, and subsequently assigns to another party his interest in the recognizance, the owner of the mortgage is a competent witness after the death of the assignee of the interest in the recognizance to testify, in a proceeding in the orphans’ court to distribute the fund represented by the recognizance, to convei’sations between himself and the mortgagor tending to show that the mortgage was intended as an equitable assignment of the interest in the recognizance. Equitable assignment — Recognizance in partition — Mortgage—Intention. Where an owner of an interest in a recognizance in partition executes a mortgage which describes the property pledged as an interest in the land for which the recognizance was given, and it appears that it was the intention of the parties to pledge the interest in the recognizance, the mortgage will be considered an equitable assignment of the interest in the recognizance. Contract— Consideration. Consideration like every other part of a contract must be the result of agreement. The parties must understand and be influenced to the particular action by something of value or convenience and inconvenience, recognized by all of them as the moving cause. That which is a mere fortuitous result flowing accidentally from an arrangement, but in no degree prompting the actors to it, is not to be esteemed a legal consideration. Assignment — Consideration—Extension of time — Auditor's finding. An auditor’s finding that an assignment of a recognizance as collateral security for a pre-existing debt was not based on an extension of time actually contracted for, and hence without consideration, is as conclusive as a verdict of a jury, and will be sustained in favor of equities founded upon a prior assignment of the recognizance.