Citation Numbers: 7 N.J. Misc. 1035
Filed Date: 11/14/1929
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 7/25/2022
This is an appeal from a judgment entered on an instructed verdict for the defendants in the Essex County Circuit Court.
The complaint contained two counts. The first is based on two promissory notes given by the defendants to the plaintiff. The second is based on the failure of the defendants to complete, by paying the balance of the purchase price, the performance of the contract for the purchase of a tract of land by the defendants from the plaintiff. On the trial the court struck out the second count. From that ruling no appeal was taken. The trial then proceeded on the remaining count based on the promissory notes. Defendants’ answer admitted the making of the notes sued upon and set up the defense of fraud in that the plaintiff was alleged to have represented that the notes were not to become due unless title
In the case of McCormack v. Williams, 88 N. J. L. 170, it was held by the Court of Errors and Appeals (Walker, C.) that our Negotiable Instrument act (Comp. 8tat., p. 3734) provides in section 24 that every negotiable instrument shall be deemed prima facie to have been issued for a valuable consideration, and that every person whose signature appears thereon is deemed to have become a party thereto for value, and that when the plaintiff proved the notes in suit, offered them and rested, he established a prima facie case which entitled him to go to the jury. We consider that the instant case is- within that ruling and that the court erred in directing a verdict for the defendant. This conclusion makes it unnecessary to consider the remaining points.
The judgment is therefore reversed.