Case ID: njl_7/html/0115-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": ".Per Curiam.\n    ", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

*Chauncey Griswold against Elijah Ward, Administrator, with the will annexed, of Benjamin Burrouhs, Deceased.
    IK ERROR TO THE COMMON PLEAS OF MORRTS.
    In an'action of assumpsit, brought by an administrator against the drawer of a promissory note given to the intestate, the drawer may, under the plea of payment, prove paymenis made by him to the children and heirs of the intestate, in pursuance of the request and direction of the administrator.
    This was an action of assumpsit; plea general issue and payment. Elijah Ward, the plaintiff below, sued Griswold on a promissory note, drawn by Ohauncey Griswold, payable to Benjamin Burroughs, or order, for $250. This note was endorsed by Benjamin Burroughs, and was proved and read in evidence on the trial below, on the part of the plaintiff, Elijah Ward. There was also an endorsement on the said note, in the words and figures following: “ Received of Elijah Ward, administrator, with the will annexed, of Benjamin Burroughs, deceased, his note for two hundred and ■seventy-six dollars and twenty-five cents, dated 9th August, .1817, payable two years after date, with interest from date, which, when paid, is in full of the within note, and which said note is endorsed by Samuel Burroughs. Received for ALochanies’ Bank, New York. Elias Vanarsdalo, attorney for said bank,” Here Elijah Ward, on the trial below rested his case.
    Ohauncey Griswold, the defendant below, then offered to .prove, by Susan Cutler, one of the children and heirs of Benjamin Burroughs, that she had received payment from the said Ohauncey for her share of said note, and that Elijah Ward had directed Ohauncey Griswold to pay, and the heirs to receive, what they should agree upon in satisfaction of said note. Elijah Ward then objected to the witness, on account of interest, and the court decided that the witness-was incompetent, and rejected her testimony. Ohauncey Griswold then gave to the witness a release, and again offered her as a witness to prove the foregoing facts. Elijah Ward again objected, and the court again rejected the witness. And the court further decided, that it was incompetent for the said Ohauncey to prove -any of the above stated facts, under the pleadings in the cause; that it was incompetent 'for him, the said Ohauncey, to shew any payments, except such as were made to Benjamin Burroughs, in his lifetime.
    *The defendant then offered to prove, by Ohauncey
    Griswold, that, shortly before the commencement of the suit, Elijah Ward went to the house of Ohauncey Griswold, the defendant, and told Ohauncey that the children of Benjamin Burroughs were calling on him for the money mentioned in the said note, and requested Ohauncey to make some arrangement with the children of Benjamin Bürroughs; that any arrangement and settlement that Ohauncey might make with the said children, he, Ward, would agree to. To all which last mentioned facts, so offered to be proved, the said Elijah objected, and the court sustained the objection of the said ■Elijah, and would not allow or permit the said Ohauncey to prove the same.
    The said Ohauncey, on the trial of the cause before the court below, excepted to the said opinions of the court, and prayed that his execptions might be allowed and sealed, and they were allowed and sealed accordingly. The jury found a verdict for the plaintiff; whereupon Griswold brought a writ of error to this court, and assigned, among others, the following errors :
    1. That the court would not permit the said Ohauncey to prove any payments, except such as were made to the said Benjamin in his lifetime.
    2. That the court would not permit the said Ohauncey to prove that the said Elijah, after he took up the said note, and before .the commencement of the suit, told the said ■Oliauncey that the children of the said Benjamin wore calling oil him, the said Elijah, for the money mentioned in the said note; that the said Elijah requested the said Chauncov to pay off and satisfy the children of the said Benjamin the moneys mentioned in the said note, and that the said Cliaun■cey had paid off and satisfied the said children of the said Benjamin, the moneys mentioned in the said note.
    
      Scudder, for the plaintiff in error.
   .Per Curiam.

The court erred in not receiving the evidence offered to prove payments to the children of the payee of the note; therefore,

Let judgment be reversed.