Weber v. Roland

Citations

• 39 Pa. Super. 611
• 1909 Pa. Super. LEXIS 544

Syllabus

<p>Judgment — Opening judgment — Petition—Demurrer—Fraud.</p> <p>1. A petition to open a judgment is not demurrable if it alleges failure of consideration, the age, infirmity, and weak-mindedness of the maker, that the maker did not understand the force of it, and that the note was a fraud upon the maker, although the petition does not set forth specific facts showing actual fraud.</p> <p>2. An order making absolute a rule to open a judgment will not be reversed, where the opinion of the court below shows such consideration and balancing of the testimony as to raise in the mind of the judge a clear conviction of the importance, if not necessity, of submitting the disputed question involved to a jury; and this is the case although on a subsequent trial of the cause the judge is convinced that the allegation of fraud is not sustained and withholds the consideration of it from the jury.</p> <p>Judgment — Opening judgment — Mental weakness — Issue—Consideration — Seal.</p> <p>3. On the trial of an issue to determine the validity of a judgment entered upon a note under seal, where the defense is the mental incapacity of the maker and failure of consideration, evidence of the defendant's lack of memory at the time the note was made, her failure to understand business propositions which were propounded to her and other things of like character and particularly her condition after a stroke, is for the jury.</p> <p>4. In such a ease the burden is cast upon the representative of the defendant, the maker, to show that the decedent was so weak-minded, arising from her bodily infirmities, that she was unable to understand the effect of the signing of the note, upon which the judgment was entered, and it is incumbent upon the defense to show that her lack of understanding depended entirely upon her weak-mindedness.</p> <p>5. In an action upon a bond or note under seal, want of consideration is no defense.</p> <p>6. On the trial of an issue to determine the validity of a judgment