Opinion
(July Term, 1816.)
When a note was endorsed as follows: "Pay the contents to W. or his order, for value received, with recourse to me at any time thereafter, without further notice," it was held that a cause of action accrued against the endorser, without notice, from the return of an execution against the drawer, by which nothing was made; but the terms of the endorsement did not render the endorser liable at any indefinite period of time.
ASSUMPSIT against the defendant as endorser of a promissory note, made payable to him by Kittera and Musser, dated 25 August, 1795, and payable a twelve-month after date. The endorsement was in the following words: "Pay the contents to W. Wistar, or his order, for value received, with recourse to me at any time hereafter, without further notice."
Henderson for plaintiff.
Brown for defendant.
The makers of the note were insolvent in 1797; but separate suits were brought against them in 1799, in which judgments were confessed; but nothing was made by the execution, which was returned in 1800. A demand was made on the defendant in 1815, after which this suit was brought. The pleas were "general issue" and "statute of limitations." (405)
Although the endorsement of the notes to the plaintiff is couched in unusual terms, we cannot give to them the extraordinary latitude which would subject the defendant to the payment of the demand after any lapse of time, as contended for the plaintiff. To place these cases on the most favorable grounds for the plaintiff, we must say that the cause of action accrued against the defendant from the return of the executions against the drawers of the notes. That was in 1800. No demand on defendant was made till January, 1815, when the plaintiff's demand was most clearly barred by the statute for the limitation of actions.
Judgment for the defendant.