Calvary Presbyterian Church v. Brydon

SCOTT, J.,

pro tem.

Plaintiffs recovered judgment against defendant, a former member, for an unpaid balance on a church building fund subscription which was evidenced by an installment promissory note executed by the latter.

Defendant was one of a number of members of plaintiff church who at an earlier date had indorsed a note for an amount far in excels of the amount of the note here sued on, the proceeds of the former note being used to erect and furnish a building where the congregation could gather

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for worship. Subscriptions were solicited among the members, who mutually obligated themselves so that individual obligations would be substituted for the general liability which the indorsers of the larger note, including defendant, had assumed. In addition thereto, after defendant had signed the personal note certain purchases were made in reliance upon his promise to pay. The consideration thus afforded was sufficient to support such promise.

(University of Southern California

v.

Bryson,

103 Cal. App. 39 [283 Pac. 949].)

It is contended that certain soliciting agents hired by the church of which defendant was a member said that if defendant at some later time transferred his membership to another church the obligation would be canceled. We see no theory upon which weight or validity could be attributed to such utterances sufficient to vary the express terms of a written instrument. They were at the most an exposition of a layman’s idea as to the legal effect of the document or obligation, or a prophetic declaration as to how the church membership at some future time and as then constituted would respond to his prayer that they forgive him this debt. The record shows that when the church by its vote, approved by the superior ecclesiastical body, permitted defendant to transfer his spiritual allegiance to another church, they adopted and sent to him, together with his church letter, a resolution suggesting that they would expect him to pay the balance on his pledge as evidenced by the note in question.