Dobbs-Maynard Co., Inc. v. Jumper

388 So. 2d 879, 30 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 1326, 1980 Miss. LEXIS 2106
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 24, 1980
Docket52049
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 388 So. 2d 879 (Dobbs-Maynard Co., Inc. v. Jumper) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dobbs-Maynard Co., Inc. v. Jumper, 388 So. 2d 879, 30 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 1326, 1980 Miss. LEXIS 2106 (Mich. 1980).

Opinion

388 So.2d 879 (1980)

DOBBS-MAYNARD COMPANY, INC.
v.
Herschel G. JUMPER.

No. 52049.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

September 24, 1980.

Barrett J. Clisby, Roberts & Clisby, Oxford, George M. Mitchell, Jr., Eupora, for appellant.

Fred B. Smith, Robert W. Elliott, Smith, Elliott & Fortier, Ripley, for appellee.

Before SMITH, P.J., and SUGG and COFER, JJ.

SUGG, Justice, for the Court:

Dobbs-Maynard Company, Inc., plaintiff, filed suit against Herschel G. Jumper for $46,350.99 plus interest from December 30, 1975 which plaintiff alleged was the balance due on a note executed by the defendant to the plaintiff on November 10, 1975 in the amount of $58,850.99. The jury returned a verdict for the defendant, plaintiff appealed and assigned four errors. (1) The trial court erred by not sustaining plaintiff's motion to strike defendant's affirmative defenses as having no basis in law; (2) the court erred by not allowing portions of a transcript of a case tried in the United States District Court for the Northern District into evidence; (3) the court erred by failing to grant plaintiff's motion for peremptory instruction; and (4) the court erred by not sustaining plaintiff's motion for judgment n.o.v. or in the alternative by not granting a new trial.

The issue in the trial court was whether defendant owed plaintiff the balance due *880 on the promissory note of November 10, 1975. Plaintiff contended that the note was given to it by defendant as payment or security for the campaign debt of defendant. Defendant raised the following affirmative defenses: (1) Fraud and misrepresentation of fact by plaintiff through its agent, Martinson; (2) lack or failure of consideration; (3) conditional delivery or delivery for a special purpose; (4) preexisting agreement and condition precedent; and (5) plaintiff was not a holder in due course of the note. The evidence introduced by each of the parties will be set forth in the opinion as each question is discussed.

I

WAS THE PLAINTIFF A HOLDER IN DUE COURSE?

The note in question was executed on November 10, 1975 at the Sun-N-Sand Motel in Jackson, Mississippi. The only persons present when the note was signed were Mike Martinson and the defendant. Martinson is the president, sole stockholder, and general manager of Dobbs-Maynard Company, Inc., the plaintiff. According to Martinson he had unsuccessfully attempted to collect the balance due on the account owing by defendant to the plaintiff. Martinson stated that defendant executed the note representing the outstanding balance due on defendant's campaign for Highway Commissioner of the Northern District and that he requested the note to be signed because a note is better security than an open account and he needed the note so he would have better protection, "If something like this came to pass, and it has come to pass."

The defendant testified that he signed the note at the request of Martinson as an accommodation to Martinson, who told him he was in a financial bind and needed the note so he could show it on his financial statement in order to get a loan from a bank. Defendant testified that Martinson assured him that he would never see the note again and that its sole purpose was to let Martinson borrow money on a bolstered financial statement.

Plaintiff claims it is a holder in due course of the note under section 75-3-302 Mississippi Code Annotated (1972) which provides in part the following:

(1) A holder in due course is a holder who takes the instrument
(a) for value; and
(b) in good faith; and
(c) without notice that it is overdue or has been dishonored or of any defense against or claim to it on the part of any person.
(2) A payee may be a holder in due course.

Plaintiff contends that it took the note for value within the meaning of section 75-3-303 Mississippi Code Annotated (1972) which provides in part:

A holder takes the instrument for value
(b) when he takes the instrument in payment of or as security for an antecedent claim against any person whether or not the claim is due;

The payee of a note may be a holder in due course when the instrument was not delivered to the payee by the maker but by an intermediary or an agent of the maker. We cite three cases where courts of other jurisdictions have held the payee of a negotiable instrument is a holder in due course. S. & C. Transport Co., Inc. v. McAlister, 528 P.2d 1140 (Okl. 1974); Eldon's Super Fresh Stores, Inc. v. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc., 296 Minn. 130, 207 N.W.2d 282 (1973); Waterberry Savings Bank v. Jaroszewski, 4 Conn.Cir. 620, 238 A.2d 446 (1967). These cases illustrate the conditions under which a payee may be considered a holder in due course.

The Court of Appeals of Oklahoma, Division 1, held in S. & C. Transport Co., Inc. v. McAlister, supra, that the payee in four checks was a holder in due course under the Uniform Commercial Code. The checks in question were signed by McAlister, the defendant, and delivered to J.W. Pitts who completed the checks and delivered them to the plaintiff, S. & C. Transport Co. Pitts was engaged in the feed and grocery business *881 but his credit rating had become strained and plaintiff would not continue to transport feed to Pitts except on a cash basis. Pitts and McAlister entered into a business arrangement under which McAlister would deliver signed checks to Pitts to be completed by him and delivered to the plaintiff. The maker of the checks, McAlister, did not deliver the checks to the payee, but delivery was accomplished by an intermediary, Pitts, so the court held that the payee was a holder in due course because it took the checks without notice of any defense on the part of McAlister.

In Eldon's Super Fresh Stores, Inc. v. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc., supra, the Minnesota Supreme Court held that Merrill Lynch was a holder in due course of a check issued by Eldon's to Merrill Lynch and delivered to Merrill Lynch by an agent of Eldon's. The agent of Eldon's, who delivered the check to Merrill Lynch, applied the check in payment of stock purchased by him, instead of purchasing stock for Eldon's as instructed by his principal. The court held that Merrill Lynch was a holder in due course under the Uniform Commercial Code because it took the check without notice of any defense against it or claim to it on the part of any person. The court concluded that a payee could become a holder in due course to a check delivered from the maker by its agent and that negotiation from a prior holder was not necessary to make the payee a holder in due course.

In Waterberry Savings Bank v. Jaroszewski, supra, the Fourth Circuit Court of Connecticut held that where no representative of payee was present when a note was signed, and no agent of payee participated in negotiations leading to the execution of the note, payee was a holder in due course under the Uniform Commercial Code.

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Bluebook (online)
388 So. 2d 879, 30 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 1326, 1980 Miss. LEXIS 2106, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dobbs-maynard-co-inc-v-jumper-miss-1980.