Western Hardwood Lumber Co. v. Superior Furniture Manufacturers, Ltd.

CRAIL, P. J. The Superior Furniture Manufacturers, Ltd., hereafter called the corporation, made and delivered to the plaintiff three negotiable promissory notes to evidence a preexisting indebtedness of the corporation to the plaintiff. Several days after the plaintiff had received and accepted the notes and as an entirely separate transaction the plaintiff requested the defendants John 0. King and Helene W. King to place their indorsements on the backs of the notes for the accommodation of the plaintiff in order to enable the plaintiff to discount the notes at a bank. This the defendants did. The Corporation went into bankruptcy. Thereafter the plaintiff brought an action against the defendants on the notes.

The defendants answered the complaint setting up as an affirmative defense that they placed their indorsements on the notes for the accommodation of the plaintiff and without receiving any consideration whatever therefor and that this was done several days after the notes had been delivered by the maker and accepted by the plaintiff. At the trial the plaintiff contended the fact to be and introduced evidence to prove that the notes bore the indorsements of the defendants at the time of delivery. The defendants on their part testified that the indorsements were made several days after the notes had been delivered; that an agent of the plaintiff brought the notes to the home of the defendants and there [289]requested them to place their indorsements on the notes in order to enable the plaintiff to discount the notes at a bank and raise some money.

The trial court found that it was not true as claimed by the plaintiff that the notes were indorsed at the same time as the execution of the notes and as a part of the same transaction, but that it was true that several days subsequent to the making, execution and delivery of the notes to the plaintiff by the corporation and subsequent to the acceptance of said notes by the plaintiff, an agent of the plaintiff procured the indorsement of defendants and that the defendants indorsed the notes for the accommodation of the plaintiff, and that neither of the defendants received any consideration or anything of value whatever for such indorsements. Judgment was entered in favor of defendants, and it is from this judgment the appeal is taken.

The parties agree that the law is well settled that an accommodation indorser is not liable to the accommodated party, defendants citing First Nat. Bank v. Reed, 198 Cal. 252, 259 [244 Pac. 368]; Williams v. Hasshagen, 166 Cal. 386, 390 [137 Pac. 9] ; Leverone v. Hildreth, 80 Cal. 139 [22 Pac. 72]; Coghlin v. May, 17 Cal. 515, 516.