Noble v. Beeman-Spaulding-Woodward Co.

131 P. 1006, 65 Or. 93, 1913 Ore. LEXIS 236
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedApril 29, 1913
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 131 P. 1006 (Noble v. Beeman-Spaulding-Woodward Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Noble v. Beeman-Spaulding-Woodward Co., 131 P. 1006, 65 Or. 93, 1913 Ore. LEXIS 236 (Or. 1913).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Burnett

delivered the opinion of. the court.

It may be conceded that as to the bank the plaintiff, who signed the writing on the back of the note, and the defendants in this action, all of whom signed the note as makers, were all directly liable. Such is the doctrine taught by all the cases cited in the defendant’s brief: Hungerford v. O’Brien, 37 Minn. 306 (34 N. W. 161); Hecht v. Acme Coal Co., 19 Wyo. 10 (113 Pac. 786); Walter A. Wood Co. v. Farnham, 1 Okl. 375 (33 Pac. 867); Roberts v. Hawkins, 70 Mich. 566 (38 N. W. 575), and other cases. The question, however, here to be determined is not between the bank and the parties to this suit, but it is for us to decide what is the relation existing between the plaintiff, who signed the instrument on the back of the note, on the one hand, and the defendants here, who signed as makers, on the [101]*101other. In the first place, it is laid down in the case of Staver v. Locke, 22 Or. 519, 524 (30 Pac. 497, 498, 17 L. R. A. 652, 29 Am. St. Rep. 621), that “In determining the liability of a surety or a guarantor, it must be remembered that he is a favorite of the law and has the right to stand upon the strict terms of his obligation when such terms are ascertained.”

1, 2. It is manifest, upon the face of the writings involved, that at the outset the parties intended to be bound to the bank in different capacities, for, as conceded by all parties, Noble refused to sign the contract of guaranty indorsed on the note, unless the individual members of the corporation, including the answering defendant here, should themselves sign the note, and it was only when the note was again presented to blm with the signatures of the individual defendants as makers that he signed as he did. Our negotiable instrument law (Laws 1899, p. 27, § 63) provides: “ A person placing his signature upon an instrument otherwise than as a maker, drawer or acceptor is deemed to be an indorser, unless he clearly indicates by appropriate words his intention to be bound in some other capacity.” Under this section it is plain that Noble was not an indorser, because he indicated by the appropriate word “guarantee” his intention to be bound in that capacity and not as an indorser. Section 5862, L. O. L., says: “An accommodation party is one who has signed the instrument as maker, drawer, acceptor, or indorser, without receiving value therefor, and for the purpose of lending his name to some other person. Such a person is liable on the instrument to a holder for value, notwithstanding such holder at the time of taking the instrument knew him only to be an accommodation party.” The code has thus limited accommodation parties to the four classes of maker, drawer, acceptor, or indorser. True enough, it has not made it unlawful for any person to enter into a contract of guaranty [102]*102as to the debts of another party, bnt by the law, “the mention of one being the exclusion of the other, ’ ’ such a guarantor is not an accommodation party. Although, by placing his name only on the back of the note, Noble would have been an indorser, he clearly excluded himself from that category by the terms of the writing which he signed, indicating his intention to be bound in a different capacity. So far as anything is concerned in this case, the writing which Noble signed would have been equally efficacious if it had been inscribed on an entirely separate piece of paper, with appropriate words describing the instrument to be secured.

3-8. Taking Noble’s agreement and the note together, nothing else being shown, his liability is not concurrent-with that of those who signed the note as makers, but successive to theirs, and this would be true, in the absence of any other showing, even if Noble had only written his name on the back of the note before it was delivered to the bank and the money advanced thereon. The law of this state says that: “The person ‘primarily’ liable on an instrument is the person who by the terms of the instrument is absolutely required to pay the same”: L. O. L., § 6023. On the face of the note this is the liability of the defendant Smith. The same section says further: “All other parties are secondarily liable.” Even if Noble had merely written his name on the back of the note and thus became an indorser under the terms of Section 5896, L. O. L., he would still have been only secondarily liable, as .respects the makers, and hence not in the same category with Smith. But if we should treat Noble as strictly an indorser and not a guarantor, as far as appears from the note itself and its indorsements, “it is the established rule that the parties to ordinary commercial paper, negotiated for value in the regular course of business, are liable to each other in succession as their [103]*103names appear upon the instrument; the acceptor of a bill or the maker of a note being the principal debtor and the indorsers being liable severally in the order in wbicb their names are written. The same rule applies in the absence of special agreement to successive accommodation parties, and a subsequent accommodation indorser, who has been compelled to mee.t the obligation, may maintain an action upon the instrument against any prior accommodation party and recover the whole amount paid, although be knew that the latter’s signature was given for accommodation merely. It follows that successive accommodation parties, acceptor and indorser, maker and indorser, or successive indorsers, are not to be considered as cosureties, and therefore they are not entitled to contribution among themselves unless they specially agree that they are to be bound jointly and not severally, but where such an agreement exists, contribution may be enforced and the agreement may be proved by parol or may be evidenced by the circumstances of the case”: 1 Am. & Eng. Ency. Law (2 ed.), p. 356. To the same effect is the doctrine taught by the case of Montgomery v. Page, 29 Or. 320 (44 Pac. 689). There Montgomery bad signed a note as maker wbicb bad already been signed by a partnershi p in its firm name and by the individual partners. Montgomery was in fact a surety, and at the same time, as part of the transaction, the defendant Page wrote on the back of the note and signed these words, “for value received I hereby guarantee the payment of the within note,” and, having been compelled to pay the note, brought an action against Page and alleged that, at the time of the making of the note and the indorsement by Page, it was agreed between them that, in case either should be compelled to pay the note, the other would contribute half of the amount required to be paid. Based upon such an allegation, this court, in an opinion by Mr. Justice Wolveeton, held that the agreement [104]*104could be proved by parol and could be relied upon to take the case out of the natural operation of the law upon the writings embodied in the note and the indorsement thereof. The contract raised by operation of the law between the makers of a promissory note and the indorsers thereof is that the liability is successive. This contract may be overcome and the natural operation of the law be superseded only by a special contract between the parties thus bound to pay the note.

Turning to the answer of the defendant Smith, we find it to be utterly silent about any agreement between himself and Noble about the relation to be sustained between each other as to the note, independent of the effect of the note itself and the contract indorsed thereon by Noble.

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Bluebook (online)
131 P. 1006, 65 Or. 93, 1913 Ore. LEXIS 236, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/noble-v-beeman-spaulding-woodward-co-or-1913.