Clark v. United Grocery Co.

68 So. 766, 69 Fla. 624
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedMay 18, 1915
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 68 So. 766 (Clark v. United Grocery Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Clark v. United Grocery Co., 68 So. 766, 69 Fla. 624 (Fla. 1915).

Opinion

Ellis, J.

The United Grocery Company, a corporation, plaintiff below, brought suit against W. T. Clark on four promissory notes made by the Co-operative Grocery Company, a corporation, payable to'the order of the United Grocery Company, each in the sum of five hundred dollars, dated July 6th, 1909, and payable in October, November, December and January following, respectively. These notes were signed by the “Co-operative Grocery Co. by G. M. Clark Pres.,” and each bore the following-endorsement : “For value received we hereby indorse the within note and guarantee its payment, and hereby waive demand and protest and notice of demand, non-payment and protest. W. T. Clark, G. M. Clark.”

The declaration in each of the four counts alleges that the defendant endorsed the notes and specifically waived demand and protest and notice of demand, non-payment and protest, and plaintiff in accepting and receiving said notes relied upon said endorsement and said notes were and still remain unpaid, except that on the note which first became .due and was made the subject of the first count the sum of $222.84 was paid.

Seven pleas were interposed by the defendant to the declaration: First, payment by principal debtor; second, satisfaction and discharge by the maker of the note; third, set-off on behalf of the maker; fourth, denying presentation of note for payment; fifth, denying that plaintiff in accepting the notes relied upon the endorsement of the defendant; sixth, that defendant was an accommodation endorser for the payee of the notes without receiving value therefor, and seventh, that plaintiff extended the time of payment without knowledge or consent of the defendant.

The declaration alleges in each count that the notes [626]*626were “duly presented for payment, and payment thereof refused.” The word “refused” was used in the first count, and the word “dishonored” in the others. After the pleas were filed the plaintiff applied for and obtained leave to amend the declaration by eliminating from each count the words above quoted, and substituting therefor the words “and the said note was and still remains unpaid, to the damage of the plaintiff, wherfore it brings this suit.”

The plaintiff then joined issue upon the defendant’s first, second, fourth, fifth and seventh pleas, and replied to the second and third pleas that the goods and chattels delivered to the plaintiff by the maker of the notes, and made the subject of the second and third pleas were delivered to plaintiff as gratuitous bailee to be held for the account of the maker of the notes, denying that the goods were sold to or accepted by the plaintiff on account or in satisfaction of the notes, and averring that the title to the property was still in the Co-operative Grocery Company, the maker of. the notes, but held by the plaintiff for the purpose of realizing thereon and applying the proceeds to the satisfaction of the debt sued on, and denying any indebtedness to the Co-operative Grocery Co., and never was indebted as to the third plea. As to the sixth plea denied that the defendant endorsed the notes for the accommodation of the payee, but alleged that he endorsed the notes for the accommodation of the maker. Issue was joined by defendant on all the replications. Afterwards a demurrer to the fourth plea was sustained, and the defendant withdrew his sixth plea.

So the issues raised by the pleadings in this case were : first, payment; second, satisfaction and discharge by the delivery of certain chattels to the plaintiff by defendant; [627]*627third, set-off; and, fourth, release of defendant’s liability by extension of time for payment without knowledge or consent of defendant.

Upon these issues the parties went to trial, there was a verdict and judgment for the plaintiff in the sum of $2,318.16. To this judgment the defendant took writ of error.

The counsel for plaintiff in error discuss only four of the eleven assignments of error, namely the first, fourth, ninth and tenth. The tenth assignment rests upon the order of the court denying the motion for a new trial. The grounds of the motion discussed under this assignment are: The fourth, which raises the question of the sufficiency of the evidence to support the verdict; the sixth, that the evidence establishes the issue raised by defendant’s fifth and sixth pleas in favor of the defendant that defendant was an accommodation endorser for plaintiff without consideration, and the seventh and eighth grounds under which it is contended that the evidence shows a conversion by the plaintiff of the chattels referred to in the third plea and for that reason the verdict should have been for the defendant; the conversion of one refrigerator by the plaintiff for which the jury made no allowance in their verdict.

It is insisted in behalf of plaintiff in error that the court below should have sustained defendant’s objection to the introduction in evidence by the plaintiff of the four notes which formed the basis of the suit. The grounds of objection were: First, the endorsement appearing on the back of the notes is a contract of guaranty and not one of endorsement, which constitutes a variance between the contract sited on and the proof offered in [628]*628support of it; second, the contract is a joint one between defendant and another, and that other is not joined in the suit. The overruling of this objection constitutes the basis for the first assignment.

The pleas interposed by the defendant were not such as denied the contract sued on, they were pleas in confession and avoidance. Rule 66 Law Actions; 31 Cyc. 215. See Skinner Mfg. Co. v. Douville, 57 Fla. 180, 49 South. Rep. 125; Mizell v. Watson, 57 Fla. 111, 49 South. Rep. 149.

The allegations of the declaration as to the making of the notes by the Co-operative Grocery Co., the terms and conditions thereof as set out in the declaration, the endorsement of the same by defendant and the waiver of demand and protest and notice of demand, non-payment and protest not being denied by the pleas, are admitted to be true. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co. v. Crosby, 53 Fla. 400, 43 South. Rep. 318; Cotton States B. & S. Co., v. Florida Railway, decided this term.

The defendant, a witness in his own behalf, was asked : “Do you know that these notes or either of them was ever presented to the maker for payment ?” This question was objected to by plaintiff’s attorney, and the objection sustained. This ruling is made the basis for the fourth assignment. The pleadings presented no such issue. The declaration alleged waiver of demand, this allegation was- not denied by the pleas. A demand on the maker when the note became due and his failure to pay were sufficient under the pleadings to charge the indorser. 3 R. C. L. 1171, section 388.

The defendant requested the following instruction, [629]*629which was refused: “If you believe from the evidence in this case that G. M. Clark, representing the maker of the notes sued on, and B. G.

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Bluebook (online)
68 So. 766, 69 Fla. 624, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/clark-v-united-grocery-co-fla-1915.