Case Name: BELL against Assignee of READING
Court: New Jersey Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: New Jersey
Decision Date: 1806-11
Citations: 2 N.J.L. 143
Docket Number: 
Parties: BELL against Assignee of READING.
Judges: 
Reporter: New Jersey Law Reports
Volume: 2
Pages: 132–133

Head Matter:
BELL against Assignee of READING.
ON CERTIORARI.
Covenant to deliver boards, not assignable.
It appears from the return of the justice in this cause, that the defendant, James Bell, had entered into a covenant under seal, to deliver a certain quantity of boards to one John R. Reading; that this covenant was afterwards assigned by Reading to the plaintiff, and that upon this covenant, the plaintiff instituted this action, which is an action of debt in his own name.

Opinion:
[*] Kirkpatrick, C. J.
— Delivered the opinion [105] of the court. This instrument is not assignable in law; the assignee cannot maintain an action thereupon in his own name; nor if he could, would an action of debt lie: it must be of covenant broken.
Let the judgment be reversed.
Cited in Sheppard v. Stites, 2 Halst. 90.