City of Orlando v. Gooding

Citations

• 34 Fla. 244

Syllabus

<p>ALTERATION OF INSTRUMENT — SUIT UPON — PLEADING—ONUS OF PROOF TO EXPLAIN ALTERATION — ADMINISTRATOR OF DECEASEDOBLIGOR CAN NOT BE SUED JOINTLY WITH SURVIVING OBLIGORS.</p> <p>1. A suit upon a bond, made payable to the mayor of an incorporated city or town and his successoi’s in office, to secure the faithful performance of the duties of its clerk and treasurer, should be brought in the name of the mayor, for the use of such city or town.</p> <p>2. When an instrument is offered in evidence, that is assailed as having been materially and unauthorizedly altered after execution by interlineation or otherwise, if the alteration is in itself suspicious, as, if it appears to he contrary to the probable meaning of the instrument as it stood before the insertion of the alteration; or if it is in a hand-writing- different from the body of the instrument, or appears to have been written with different ink — in all such cases, if the court considers the alteration suspicious on its face, the presumption will be that it was an unauthorized alteration after execution, and the onus would rest with the party offering the instrument to explain it. On the other hand, if the alteration ajipears in the same handwriting with the original instrument, and bears no evidence on its face of having been made subsequent to its execution, and especially if it only makes clear what was the evident intention of the parties, the law will presume that it was made in good faith, and before execution; and in the latter oases the onus would be oast upon the party alleging an unauthorized alteration, to show that it was unauthorized in fact.</p> <p>3. Where a bond or other obligation with sureties is unauthorizedly altered after execution by a stranger to such instrument without the knowledge, sanction, connivance or procurement of the-payee, such alteration, as between the payee and sureties, will not avoid the instrument and release the sureties, but it remains in full force as it stood in its ori