Scott's Adm'r v. Isaacs

Citations

• 85 Va. 712
• 8 S.E. 678
• 1889 Va. LEXIS 84

Syllabus

<p>Payment&emdash;Presumption&emdash;Lapse of time&emdash;Laches.&emdash;For balance due on negotiable note, holder, a bank, got judgment in 1857 against maker and five endorsers. No execution was ever issued, nor was the judgment ever revived. In 1871 the bank was wound up and its effects sold, among them the note. The judgment does not appear to have been sold. Cashier testified that it never went into receiver’s hands, and was , never sold, and that balance on it was allowed the last endorser as attorney’s fees. Said endorser died in 1862. In 1879 purchasers of the note filed it as their claim in a suit begun in 1868, for settlement of his estate. Prior endorser who, as.sheriff, had served the process in the bank’s action, and knew all about the matter, was dead. Former administrator of fast endorser testified that in 1865 the bank filed its claims against the estate, but did not file this. In 1872 assignee of the bank brought suit to enforce lien of judgment obtained in 1859 against another prior endorser, wherein an account of liens was taken, and neither the note nor the judgment was mentioned ;</p> <p>Held:</p> <p>The estate of the last endorser is not liable for the claim set up by the purchasers of the note, and the lapse of time and the circumstances offered grounds for the presumption of payment, and constitute such laches as to bar recovery.</p>