Misso v. National Bank of Commerce

95 So. 2d 124, 231 Miss. 249, 1957 Miss. LEXIS 511
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedMay 13, 1957
DocketNo. 40461
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 95 So. 2d 124 (Misso v. National Bank of Commerce) 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
Misso v. National Bank of Commerce, 95 So. 2d 124, 231 Miss. 249, 1957 Miss. LEXIS 511 (Mich. 1957).

Opinion

McG-ehee, C. J..

This suit was begun by a declaration of the National Bank of Commerce of Memphis, Tennessee, in the Circuit oCourt of Noxubee County, on a promissory note of the appellant, K. T. Misso, in the amount of $1,966.14, dated June 17, 1953, and payable in two equal annual installments of $983.07 each, due December 15, 1953 and December 15, 1954, respectively, bearing interest at 8 [252]*252per cent per annum after maturity, and providing for a reasonable attorney’s fee if placed in the bands of an attorney for collection.

The note was payable to E. F. Nunn & Company, of Shuqualak, Mississippi; the said payee endorsed the note, for value received, without recourse, to the Merchants and Planters Bank of Macon, Mississippi, and it was thereafter, on June 23, 1953, endorsed by the Merchants and Planters Bank of Macon, Mississippi, to the plaintiff, National Bank of Commerce of Memphis, Tennessee, in due course, for value received, and before maturity as above shown.

It is undisputed that at the time of the endorsement of the said note by E. F. Nunn & Company to the Merchants and Planters Bank at Macon, Mississippi, and also at the time of the endorsement by the said bank to the plaintiff, National Bank of Commerce, Memphis, Tennessee, there was stapled to the said note a purchase order signed by the appellant, K. T. Misso, for one hay baler purchased by Misso from E. F. Nunn & Company. On the reverse side of the said purchase order, there was printed a "warranty and agreement” whereby the seller of the hay baler, E. F. Nunn & Company, stipulated and agreed that "the purchaser agrees to give each item of equipment a fair trial as soon as possible after receiving and within two (2) days after the first use. If it then fails to work properly and prompt notice is given, the Seller will send a man within a reasonable time to put it in order, the Purchaser agreeing to render friendly assistance. If it still fails to work properly and the Purchaser promptly returns it to the Seller at the Seller’s place of business, the Seller will refund the amount paid, which shall constitute a settlement in full.

The promissory note to which this warranty and agreement was stapled contains no reference to the purchase order or to the warranty and agreement; and while [253]*253it is undisputed that the purchase order for the hay baler and the warranty and agreement endorsed thereon was stapled to the promissory note at the time the same was purchased in due course and for value by the plaintiff before maturity, it is also undisputed that the plaintiff, National Bank of Commerce, had no actual notice of any defect in the equipment purchased by the defendant, K. T. Misso, or that the seller, E. P. Nunn & Company, had at that time been unable to make the equipment work satisfactorily.

It is also undisputed that the purchaser, K. T. Misso, had given the equipment a fair trial, and also that the seller, E. P. Nunn & Company, had failed to make the equipment work satisfactorily after repeated efforts to do so.

The defendant defended the suit on the ground that the plaintiff, National Bank of Commerce, was charged with notice of the warranty and agreement, and was put upon inquiry as to whether or not the warranty had been breached at the time it purchased the note, six days after the date thereof, by reason of the warranty and agreement being stapled to the note at the time the plaintiff purchased the same, even though the note on its face contained no reference to the contemporaneous warranty and agreement, to show that the same was a part of the note, or that the payment of the note was to be conditioned upon the fulfillment of the said warranty and agreement.

The proof disclosed that the agent of the seller had agreed to allow the purchaser the sum of $910 for his smaller hay baler, which he was trading in on the purchase price of the new hay baler, and which hay baler formerly owned by the purchaser had been used by him in the baling of hay for himself and for his neighbors. This credit'was disclosed on the face of the purchase [254]*254order, leaving the balance of $1,966.14 for which the promissory note herein sued on was given.

The promissory note sued on was an unconditional promise to pay the amount thereof when due, and since the note made no reference to the contemporaneous warranty and agreement, and was purchased by the plaintiff in due course for value before maturity and without actual notice of the breach of the contemporaneous warranty and agreement, the trial court granted a directed verdict in favor of the plaintiff for the amount of the note, interest, and a reasonable attorney’s fee, and which attorney’s fee was shown by the undisputed proof to be 15% of the amount of principal and interest due. The court denied the counterclaim of the defendant, wherein he sought a recovery of the $910 which he had paid in applying his old hay baler on the purchase price of the one that he bought from E. F. Nunn & Company on June 17, 1953, and which new hay baler he had delivered to the place of business of the seller, E. E. Nunn & Company, after the said seller had after repeated efforts failed to make work satisfactorily.

The appellant, K. T. Misso, on this appeal assigns as error the granting of the peremptory instruction in favor of the plaintiff for the amount sued for on the promissory note, the dismissal of his counterclaim, and the overruling of the defendant’s motion for a new trial, it being the contention of the appellant that he was entitled to have the case submitted to the jury on the issue of whether or not under the undisputed proof the plaintiff was charged with notice of the warranty and agreement, and was put upon inquiry as to whether or not such warranty and agreement had been breached by the seller at the time of the purchase of the note by the plaintiff.

In our opinion there was no conflict in the evidence to be passed upon by a jury as to any of the material [255]*255facts. The question presented to us is whether or not under the undisputed proof the plaintiff was entitled to a directed verdict in its favor, as a matter of law, or whether the mere fact that attached to the note in question there was a purchase order containing a warranty that would constitute notice to the plaintiff so as to prevent the plaintiff bank from being a holder of the note in due course for value, where the undisputed proof shows that the latter had no actual notice of the warranty and of the breach thereof.

The trial judge in passing upon the motion of the plaintiff for a peremptory instruction in the course of his ruling emphasized that this warranty and agreement, endorsed on the reverse side of the purchase order which was attached to the promissory note, was not signed by the seller, E. F. Nunn & Company. However, since an offer and acceptance may be expressed by acts as well as by words, as held in the case of Rhyne et al. v. Gammil, 215 Miss. 68, 60 So. 2d 500, and Hastings-Stout Co. v. J. L. Walker & Co., 162 Miss. 275, 139 So. 622, we think that when E. F. Nunn & Company negotiated the note, it thereby signified its consent to the warranty and agreement so as to be bound thereby as between the said company as seller and the said K. T.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
95 So. 2d 124, 231 Miss. 249, 1957 Miss. LEXIS 511, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/misso-v-national-bank-of-commerce-miss-1957.