McGrew v. Forsyth

Citations

• 80 Ill. 596

Syllabus

<p>1. Limitation—new promise, to avoid ba/r. The burden of proving a promise to pay a debt barred by the statute, within five years, is upon the creditor seeking to enforce his claim. Proof of a promise to pay in 1865 or 1866, the witness thinking it was probably the latter year, when if it was before August, 1866, it was not within the five years, is not sufficient proof to take the case out of the statute.</p> <p>2. Same—promise to unauthorised person not sufficient. A promise to pay a debt, made to a person not legally or equitably interested in the same, and who does not pretend to have had any authority from the creditor to call upon the debtor in relation to the debt, will not avoid the bar of the statute.</p> <p>3. Where A was indebted to B, and B to C, and the latter being anxious to collect his debt, but, without the authority of B to negotiate or act for him, called upon A, and inquired as to his indebtedness to B, with a view thereby of getting money to enable B to pay him, and A promised C to pay the debt he owed B, it was held, that C was not legally or equitably interested in the debt thus promised to be paid, and, not being authorized by B to act for him, the promise made by A to C could not take the debt out of the bar of the statute.</p>