Condon v. Pearce

GIrason, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The record in this case shows that Evert Hansen and Brother, on the fifth day of September, 1871, gave their note at ninety days for four hundred dollars, payable to the order of the Cecil Eire Brick Company, at the National Bank of the Republic. This suit was brought by the appellee, the endorsee of the note, against the appellant, ⁹⁴ whose name appears on the back of the note as the last endorser. At the trial, the signatures of the makers, as also of Marshall Brinton, treasurer, and of the appellant, written on the back of the note, were admitted to be genuine.

The appellee then proved that Marshall Brinton was the treasurer and financial agent of the Cecil Eire Brick Company, and offered in evidence the charter of the Company, and then wrote at the trial table over the signature of the appellant, the words “pay to the order of Benjamin C. Pearce.” He further proved that he lived in Wilmington, Delaware, and bought the note for a valuable consideration before maturity, from a broker of that city. He further proved that he purchased it solely on the credit and strength of the appellant’s endorsement; that he knew him to be responsible, but did not know that he was the president of the Company. That he did not know any of the other parties to the note except Brinton, to whom he gave no credit, as he was a man of no means. He further proved that the note was protested for non-payment, and notice duly sent to the appellant, and that he afterwards wrote to the appellant about the payment of the note, who replied that he would see Brinton, and endeavor to make arrangements to pay it.

He further proved that he knew nothing of the by-laws of the Company, and then offered to read to the jury the. note and endorsements, but the appellant objected to the admissibility of so much thereof as had been written over his signature at the trial table. The Court overruled the objection, and permitted the whole of the writing to be read, and this ruling forms the ground of the first exception. Whenever a promissory note is endorsed in blank, the holder has the right to fill up the blank as was done in this case, and when so filled up the whole endorsement is competent evidence. Whiteford vs. Burckmyer, 1 Gill, 127 ; Mitchell vs. Mitchell, 11 G. & J., 388 ; Boyd vs. McCann, 10 Md., 118 .

The second and third exceptions to the Court’s ruling upon the evidence, and the fourth exception taken to the ⁹⁵ granting of the appellee’s prayer, and to the rejection of the appellant’s prayers involve the same questions, with the exception of the first prayer, and will be considered together. The counsel for the appellant has argued with much ingenuity in his brief, that no title to the note could be transferred by the corporation unless the note had been endorsed “Cecil Eire Brick Company by Marshall Brinton, Treasurer, Henry S. Condon, President,” or in words of similar import, showing that Brinton and the appellant were acting in their official character as agents of the company. While, in a suit by an endorsee against the maker it is necessary to allege in the narr. and prove the manner in which the plaintiff derived his title to the note, yet