Case Name: Edmund C. Corbett, plaintiff in error, vs. The State of Georgia, defendant in error
Court: Supreme Court of Georgia
Jurisdiction: Georgia
Decision Date: 1858-01
Citations: 24 Ga. 287
Docket Number: 
Parties: Edmund C. Corbett, plaintiff in error, vs. The State of Georgia, defendant in error.
Judges: 
Reporter: Georgia Reports
Volume: 24
Pages: 287–288

Head Matter:
Edmund C. Corbett, plaintiff in error, vs. The State of Georgia, defendant in error.
To be a promissory note, the money speciiied in the face of the instrument ' must be payable absolutely, unconditionally, and at all events.
Indictment, from Muscogee county. Tried before Judge Worried, at November Term, 1857.
Edmund C. Corbett was indicted for demanding payment of a certain promissory note, knowing the same to be forged and counterfeited.
The -note was as follows:
“ Due E. C. Corbett or bearer, the sum of ten thousand dollars with interest from date, on a settlement, to be paid when the money belonging to the firm of Lowe & Simmons is collected. This May the 16th, 1853.
(Signed,) II. II. LOWE.”
The jury found the defendant guilty, whereupon his counsel moved in arrest of judgment.
1st. Because the instrument set out in the indictment, is not a note.
2d. Because the indictment is not valid — there being no offence or violation of law, charged therein.
After argument, the presiding Judge refused the motion, and counsel for the prisoner excepted.
Hines Holt ; and Wellborn, Johnson & Sloan, for plaintiff in error.
Sol. Gen’l Oliver, and Wm. Dougherty, for the State.

Opinion:
McDonald, J.
By the Court delivering the opinion.
The judgment of the Court below must be reversed on the ground that the presiding Judge erred in refusing to sustain the motion in arrest of judgment made by the prisoner's counsel. The defendant was indicted for demanding payment of a note known by him to be a forged and counterfeit note.
The instrument set forth, in the indictment as a note, is to be paid when the money belonging to the firm of Lowe & Simmons is collected. It is not a written promise to pay money to another unconditionally, absolutely and at all events. The money is not promised to be paid unconditionally and absolutely, for it is not payable until the money due tire firm of Lowe & Simmons is collected. It cannot be said the money will ever be payable. The debts due the firm of Lowe & Simmons may never be collected, and if they are not collected, the money is not demandable on this instrument.
Judgment reversed.