Dowell v. Brown

Citations

• 21 Miss. 43

Syllabus

<p>The plaintiff in an action at law upon a promissory note, must have the legal title at the period of the commencement of the suit, to enable him to recover; it will not do, if he have it merely at the trial.</p> <p>Therefore the holder of a note not indorsed, payable to order, who was not the payee, and who brought a suit thereon against the maker, alleging an indorsement by the payee to himself; and after the institution of the suit, and before the trial, procured the indorsement of the payee to himself, 'cannot maintain the action, for the want of the legal title when the action was brought.</p> <p>Nor could such a note be given in evidence in such suit under the common counts. While the holder of negotiable paper is allowed in some instances to recover thereon under the common counts, yet it is only in cases where he could recover, had the action been brought specially upon the paper itself.</p> <p>A mere equitable right cannot be recovered under the common counts; the plaintiff, as in other actions at law, must have a legal right.</p>