Case Name: Rodney Earhart, assignee of Mathew Patterson, plaintiff in error, vs. Sarah Campbell, administratrix of J. Campbell, deceased, defendant in error
Court: Superior Court of the Territory of Arkansas
Jurisdiction: Arkansas
Decision Date: 1827-04
Citations: 1 Ark. Terr. Rep. 48
Docket Number: 
Parties: Rodney Earhart, assignee of Mathew Patterson, plaintiff in error, vs. Sarah Campbell, administratrix of J. Campbell, deceased, defendant in error.
Judges: 
Reporter: Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the United States Superior Court for the Territory of Arkansas, from 1820 to 1836
Volume: 1
Pages: 48–49

Head Matter:
Rodney Earhart, assignee of Mathew Patterson, plaintiff in error, vs. Sarah Campbell, administratrix of J. Campbell, deceased, defendant in error.
1. If a declaration is fatally defective, the court will affirm a judgment non-suiting a plaintiff', without considering whether nonsuit was proper.
2. A person who sues as assignee is bound to allege an assignment, to show title in himself.
April, 1827.
— Error, determined before Benjamin Johnson, Thomas P. Eskridge, and William Trimble, judges.

Opinion:
Opinion or tiie Court. — This is an action of debt, brought by Earhart, assignee of Mathew Patterson, against Sarah Campbell, administratrix of J. Campbell, deceased.
Upon the trial in the. circuit court, upon motion of defendant, a judgment of nonsuit was rendered against the plaintiff'. We deem it unnecessary to consider the question or point that influenced the court below in rendering a judgment of nonsuit against the plaintiff, as we are clearly of opinion that the declaration is fatally defective. On this ground the judgment of the circuit court must be affirmed. The plaintiff', Earhart, brings his suit as assignee of Mathew Patterson, and so styles himself in the declaration, but fails in any part to set out the assignment, or show any title in himself derived from Patterson. After declaring as assignee, he was bound to allege an assignment, that the defendant, if she thought proper, might deny, by plea, the assignment of the note.
This, we think, is a fatal defect in the declaration. It is further defective in not alleging the time when the note became due and payable, which it was necessary to aver in the declaration. It is also defective, substantially, in failing to allege or aver a promise to pay at any time, which is an indispensable requisite in the declaration. As the declaration is defective and sets out no good grounds of action, there is no error in the circuit court in nonsuiting the plaintiff. Judgment affirmed.