Gazlay v. Riegel

Citations

• 16 Pa. Super. 501
• 1901 Pa. Super. LEXIS 100

Syllabus

<p>Promissory notes — Negotiability—Conditional purchase.</p> <p>To be negotiable in a commercial sense a promissory note must be free from contingencies or conditions that would embarrass it in its course. It must be simple, certain, unconditional, and not subject to any contingency.</p> <p>The question of the negotiability of the note is to be determined by what appears on the face of the paper, unaided by parol proof that the transaction was not what it was there represented to be. If the parties deliberately introduce into a paper otherwise negotiable that which destroys its negotiability, it is to be presumed that they did it intentionally and with that end in view.</p> <p>A promissory note drawn in the usual form and payable at a future date contained the following clause: “The express condition of the sale and purchase of said chattels and the giving of this note, is that the title, ownership or possession does not pass from the De Laval Separator Company, 74 Cortland Street, New York, or the indorser to the maker of this note or any other person until this note is fully paid and satisfied.” Held, that the note was not negotiable.</p>