Corgan v. Frew

Citations

• 39 Ill. 31

Syllabus

<p>1. Pbomissoby note—what constitutes—and, herein, of the use of the check or dollar mark. An instrument was made as follows:</p> <p>“ $500. Wavebly, December 6,1861.</p> <p>“On or before the 20th of next May I promise to pay O. P. Christian, or his order, five hundred for value received of him,” etc.</p> <p>Held, to be a promissory note, and assignable as such.</p> <p>2. While the check or dollar mark 'in the margin cannot be used to contradict what is clearly written in the note, yet if from any cause there is uncertainty as to the sum intended to be written in the body of the instrument, the check mark may be resorted to for the purpose of explaining the instrument in that regard.</p> <p>3. So in this case, the words “ five hundred,” written in the body of the instrument, by reference to the dollar mark in the margin, are shown to mean five hundred dollars.</p> <p>4. Witness—competency—maker of a note, as between the assignor and assignee. As between the assignor and assignee of a promissory note, for all purposes except to impeach its validity or to prove its payment, the maker is a competent witness,—his interest is equally balanced between the parties.</p> <p>5. So where the assignee seeks to recover against his assignor upon the ground that the maker was insolvent and a suit against him would have been unavailing, the fact of Ms insolvency may be proved by the maker himself.</p> <p>6. Panol evidence—whether a party has converged away his lands. And in proving the fact of Ms insolvency by the maker, there is no objection to asMng him whether he was the owner of real estate, as well as of personal property.</p> <p>7. Witness—of the various modes of impeachment—or the rule controlling juries in judging of the credibility of a viitness. It is not essential, in order to justify a jury in refusing to give credit to the testimony of a witness, that he should be impeached by evidence of bad character.</p> <p>8. The usual mode of impeachment is to prove by other witn