Watkins T. Angotti

63 S.E. 969, 65 W. Va. 193, 1909 W. Va. LEXIS 27
CourtWest Virginia Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 16, 1909
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 63 S.E. 969 (Watkins T. Angotti) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering West Virginia Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Watkins T. Angotti, 63 S.E. 969, 65 W. Va. 193, 1909 W. Va. LEXIS 27 (W. Va. 1909).

Opinion

Miller, President:

On appeal by defendant from the judgment of a justice against him, in favor of plaintiff, for one hundred and fifty dollars and twenty-five cents, the case was tried de novo before a jury, in the Intermediate Court of Marion county, on new pleadings in that Court, resulting in a verdict for plaintiff against defendant, for “one hundred and thirty dollars, with interest from date of said note.” The motion of defendant to set aside this verdict on the ground that it “is contrary to the law and the evidence,” was overruled, and judgment pronounced thereon that plaintiff recover of “Pasquale Angotti and Frank Borelli, his surety on the appeal bond, the sum of one hundred and thirty dollars ($130.00), the amount of the verdict aforesaid, • with interest from date of said note, and his costs by him expended in his prosecution of this suit before the justice; and that each party pay their own costs in this Court.”

An appeal from this judgment, on petition to the circuit court of Marion county, was refused, and the case is now here upon a writ of error to said order of rejection.

• The action was on a note as follows: “Fairmont, W. Va., May 4th, 1905. $150.00. Four months after date, we, or either of us, promise and bind ourselves to pay to E. F. Watkins, or-bearer, the sum of one hundred and fifty dollars ($150.00), value received.” Signed: “P. Angotti, A. Lenci, Salvatore G-uorascio.” But neither the summons, the transcript of the justice, nor any complaint filed before the justice or on the trial in the intermediate court, describes the note sued on; the only reference to the note in the pleadings is in special plea No. 1, so called, filed by defendant Angotti, amounting to nothing more than a motion to dismiss because the other makers of the note were not served with process and brought in to defend the action, and in which it is said the pleader “does not’ owe the plaintiff [195]*195anything, otherwise than as joint maker of the note sued upon in this action.” On the trial, however, the note was introduced in evidence before the jury and was made a part of the record by bill of exceptions.

The suit was brought, not by E. F. Watkins, the payee of the note, but in the name of his brother, Alva E. Watkins, to whom he claimed to have assigned it. On the trial in the intermediate court plaintiff testified that pending the suit and before trial he had reassigned the note to E. F. Watkins, and who was entitled to the recovery.

The first point of error presented, is that the trial court, should either have dismissed the action or compelled plaintiff to bring in the other joint makers, particularly the said Lenei, a resident of Marion county. This point is without merit. The note was joint and several; besides all the makers were sued, but only P. Angotti served with process, the officer’s return as to the other defendants being “not found in Marion county.” In such cases section 2020, Code 1906, saj^s: “The plaintiff may proceed to judgment as to the defendants on whom the summons was served, * * * * and either dismiss his action as to the others, or have a second or third summons against them.” The plaintiff chose to dismiss as to defendants not served, which he clearly had the right to do. Consequently, defendant’s instructions numbered one and two, which, in effect, proposed to tell the jury that Ire was only liable jointly with the other makers of the note, and that plaintiff could not recover from him individually; and number seven, which proposed to tell them that the release of one joint or joint and several promisor is, generally speaking, a release of all, the latter having no possible application to the facts in the case; and number eight which proposed as a legal proposition to the jury “that when a suit is brought against- two or more promisors on a joint or joint and several, promissory note, and the plaintiff dismisses his suit as to one of said promisors, this amounts to a release of the one as to whom the suit is dismissed,” were all properly rejected; and plaintiff’s instructions numbers one and nine, stating the law correctly and in accordance with the statute, and substantially the. converse of the proposition of defendant’s said instructions, were properly given the jury.

Another proposition challenged by defendant here, and covered by his counter instruction number three, refused, is plaintiff’s [196]*196instruction, number two., given, namely: “That if the jury believes from the evidence, that any sum is due from the defendant to plaintiff, or to plaintiff's assignee, their they should find for the plaintiff." The defendant proposed in his counter instruction to have the jury told, that “before they can find for the plaintiff * * * *, they must believe from a preponderance of the evidence that the plaintiff, Alva E. Watkins, is the bona fide owner in his own right of the claim sued on." Briefly stated, the defendant’s position is, that in as much as plaintiff, pending the suit, had re-assigned the note sued on to E. F. Watkins, verdict and judgment could not be lawfully given in favor of the nominal plaintiff. Is this a correct proposition of law? Section 3901, Code 1906, applicable by analogy, we think, if not directly, provides that “In any stage of any,case, a scire facias may be sued out * * * * for the assignee or beneficiary party, to show cause why the suit should not proceed in the name of him or them i; * * » And y. thereby further provided that “after service of the scire facias * * * * if no sufficient cause be shown against it, an order shall be entered that the suit proceed according to such scire facias * * * *. Any such new party (except in an appellate court) may have a continuance of the ease at the term at which such order is entered; and the court may allow him to plead anew and amend the pleadings as far as it deems reasonable; but in other respects the case shall proceed to final judgment or decree for or against him, .in like manner as if the ease had been pending for or against him before such scire facias ox motion.” Section 3452 Code 1906, gives plaintiff, as assignee, right of action in his own name, without the addition of “as-signee,” though by such assignment he became invested with the equitable title only. Bentley v. Insurance Co., 40 W. Va. 729. So that the action was rightly brought by plaintiff. Was it necessary then; on re-assignment of the note, to take the steps provided by statute to substitute the name of the original payee as -plaintiff? This question we think fully answered in Benlley v. Insurance Co., supra, where the question arose,, in an action on an insurance policy, whether the action was rightfully brought in the name of Bentley, the. assignee of Louth, the assured named in the policy before loss, Bentley having after loss, but before suit brought, re-assigned the policy to Louth. The nature of the title passing and repassing by those assignments was con[197]*197sidered, and it was held regardless of the fact that the assignment to Bentley had been approved by the insurance company, and that the re-assignment by him to the insured had not been assented to by the company, that his assignment to Louth did not divest Bentley of the legal title, so as to prevent recovery on the policy, in his name. In the case at bar it is a significant fact that the note is made payable to E. F. Watkins or bearer. If the court was right in the Bently

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Bluebook (online)
63 S.E. 969, 65 W. Va. 193, 1909 W. Va. LEXIS 27, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/watkins-t-angotti-wva-1909.