Campbell etc. Co. v. Hickok

Citations

• 140 Pa. 290
• 21 A. 362
• 1891 Pa. LEXIS 843

Syllabus

<p>(а) By an instrument styled a “lease,” the plaintiff “let and demised for use” to the defendant a printing press, at the rent or hire of $3,000, payable in monthly instalments of $100 each, “to be further evidenced by the lessee’s notes bearing legal interest.....which notes are not to be considered as payment of said instalments.” The lease stipulated further:</p> <p>(б) That if the lessee should fully perform his part of the agreement, he might purchase the press at the end of the term by paying $10 in addition to the payments for rent already made, and the lessee would thereupon give him a bill of sale for the press; but if the lessee should make default, the lessor might repossess himself of and enjoy said property “ as though these presents had never been made: ”</p> <p>1. In a suit on certain of the notes given under the agreement, the affidavit of defence averred that the plaintiff, at a date subsequent to the maturity of the notes in suit, took possession of the press in the exercise of the right to do so reserved in the lease. In such case, it was not error to refuse to enter judgment for the plaintiff for want of a sufficient affidavit of defence.</p> <p>2. The notes not being given in satisfaction of the agreement, or of the hire of the property, but the lease and the notes being part and parcel of one transaction, when the agreement was rescinded by the action of the plaintiff with like effect as though it “ had never been made” the notes fell with it for want of consideration, notwithstanding their prior maturity.</p>