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3 Legal & Ins. Rep. 1 (1861)

handle is hein.journals/lglir3 and id is 1 raw text is: JAMES FULTON, Proprietor. 44 f 44 * 0nOne Dollar Per Year. OFFIGE, 124 Walnut Street. Five Cents Per Copy. VOL. III. _ PHILADELPHIA, JANUARY 1, 1861. NO. 1. The Legal and Insurance Reporter; JtM ES FULTO)N, FEditor andi Propri etor, GEO. W. HAIKINS, Associate Editor. 4W- Published Semi-Monthly, at No. 424 WALNUT STREET, PHIA.DELPHIA. Taiss or Sussextieo,-$1.00 per year. RAeTs mo ADVERTISEMENsT,--As may be agreed upon Se'ect advertisements only inserted; and when insert ed will be continued at the regular rates, until forbid- den. PEr.sjEx COectovEtsr is entirely excluded from thii paper. rhe Reporter will not even reply to its own assailants. Its only answer to attacks will be to labi, iore faithfully and industriously to make a paper wich shall be worthy of the patronage of Merchants. Lawyers, and reliable, upright Insurance Companies. N)TIcE.-Any person who sends us the names of five new subscribers will be furnished with this paper gra ts, for one year, as regularly as issued. OUR SECOND YEAR. In our last number, which concluded thA first year of the REPORTER'S existence, we took occasion to indulge in a few reflections -n our career during that period, and the manner in which we had endeavored to fulfil the duties of our position. Our readers have now had ample time afforded them to judge of the correctness of our review, and we will not trespass too much on their time and pa- tience by any further reference thereto.- While avoiding this, however, it is but proper that we should briefly state the measures we propose for still further meriting during the present year the support we have already re- ceceived: and it is our intention that the promises thus made shall be strictly perform- ed. We feel more at liberty to state our rule of conduct now that our enterprise has suc- cessfully ended its year of struggle, than when it was in its incipiency, and its success at best problematical, and our prospectus may there- fore be regarded as not having been unreflect- ingly written. And first of our Legal Department: In this important branch of the paper we have here- tofore endeavored to present to our readers a correct report of the decisions of the Courts of our own as well as of other States, on ques- tions of Commercial, Insurance and Real Estate Law, &c. So frequently do novel and interesting points of vital moment not only to the lawyer, but to every business man, arise, that it is almost indispensable that early in- formation of their decision should be given to the public. To await the appearance of the State Reports to obtain this necessary knowl- edge is not to be thought of, and would in- evitably result disastrously to many, and en- tail dangers upon them which they would otherwise be enabled to avoid. Besides this, these Reports almost exclus- ively circulate amongst members of the Bar, whose profession requires their posesession, and it is, seldom, if ever, that the merchant or manufacturer sees them. Without some ctraneous assistance, therefore, they would be left to grope along in ignorance of their riglhts and duties until they stumbled into the very misfortunes that have previously over- taken others, and which could have been guarded against if a record had but been spread before them. It is not, therefore, an over-estimation of the value of a paper design- ed for the publication of such matters, to say that it is a work of absolute necessity. Even the daily press recognizes the great conse- quence of the proceedings of the Courts, by furnishing daily reportsto their readers; and while these must be in a manner imperfect, yet there can be no doubt but that they have been of benefit to many. What assistance we have rendered in the work of imparting in- formation in such matters is best seen by a reference to the Table of Cases, as contained in the Index to Volumes One and Two, accom- panying our last number. The number of decisions referred to in that list exceeds 150, and these on almost every conceivable subject, and we doubt very much whether any strictly legal paper can present a more varied and valuable table of contents. Be this as it may, however, we commence our second year with a determination to excel, if possible. Our arrangements, present and prospective, will enable us to present to our readers in every number the latest and most important Opin- ions of our Courts, and such others as we may think of interest and value. In doing this we hope to receive the same kind support from members of the Bar and others that was extended to us when we were combatting for existenqe, and When an approach to perfection could not be expected; but, nevertheless, we ask for nothing but what our efforts entitle us to have. Our success shall be attained by meriting it. Our Insurance Department next merits our attention. On so extensive a subject, and upon which so many learned volumes have been written, it would at a first glance appear to be a work of superogation to write; but at no former period in the history of civilization has the Law of Insurance assumed as great importance, or enlisted the interest which at- taches to it, as at the present time, in nearly every part of the civilized world, Especially is this so in our own country, where the busi- ness of Fire, Marine and Life Insurance has extended into every class of society, and be- come one of the greatest aids to enterprise and improvement. The great benefits derived from it can never be too highly estimated, and any information on so extensive and im- portant a business cannot be otherwise than acceptable. It is very true that the subject has been fully treated by eminent writers, who have comparatively left little room for additional remarks; but it is, nevereheless, equally true that the great body of the people still remain in ignorance of some ot its most important principles. The very copiousness with which it has been treated, has deterred many from seeking instruction; numbers who would gladly read short articles embodying the most important conditions, falter and turn away at the sight of a ponderous volume.- Our object is therefore to present in a brief way, the principles of the Law of Insurance, to lay down, as it were, a guide for parties desirous of entering into the contract, so that they will not enter on it in total ignorance. If we succeed in this we will accomplish all that we desire, and so render our paper use- ful and instructive. In connection with this there is one other matter which it is our intention to continue. It is well known that the profits derived from Insurance business has caused a host of worth- less institutions to spring into existence, whose specious representations entrap the unwary, and bring discredit upon the better class of Companies. We have many of them in our midst, notwithstanding the fact that the past year witnessed the decease of a large number, and it is of great moment that the public should be warned of the dangers that beset them. At the outset of our undertaking we resolved that no advertisement of any Com- pany should appear in our colunius, of the truth and correctness of which we were not at first fully satisfied; and although repeated efforts were made to induce us to relax the strictness of our requirements, they were yet inflexibly enforced. The result proved the wisdom of our course, for some of the very Companies which suspended business last year were the most persistent in their applications for a place in our columns, and even threat- ening with actions for damagas for refusing them. Prudence got the better part of their valor, however, when they discovered that we possessed the privilege of saying on what terms we would admit advertisements. Not one of them ever obtained NY-hat they demand- ed, and we do not intend that others of the same class, who have thus far managed to continue their deception, ever shall. The community may rely on our promise, and place confidence in the institutions whose ad- vertisemsnts we do admit. What other mea- sures we shall take to warn the public, must depend on circumstances. Miscellaneous matter of general interest will also ind a place in the REPORTER, and we trust that our efforts to enhance its value will receive the same encouragement that they have heretofore. CHRISTAS. The Christmas of 1860 is past, and the many pleasant incidents that marked its passage are now but recollections of the past, to be made the standard by which the Christmas of the New Year now upon us will be judged. There can be no dispute as to the manner in which that of 1860 has been treated; for one day at least, the national troubles were forgotten, and the exciting news of the additional dis- grace, and shameful robbery, carelessly push- ed aside; it would be useless labor to at- tempt portraying the cheerfulness that lit up so many abodes with the sunshine of happi- ness and peace. The chief overt act which heralded the ap- proach of the great Holiday, occurred on Christmas Eve, when the streets of the city were noisy-and yet cheerfully so-with the boisterous merriment of the hundreds of happy mortals; the night air resounded with the sound of many trumpets, and was son- orous with the beat of many drums. All appeared full of gaiety and life; and, in pal- pable contradiction to the stories so industri- ously circulated in the Southern sections of the country, that grim want and despair were prompting the workingmen of the North to cry out Bread or blood! We have no recollection of ever having seen a holiday more generally and happily celebrated; and it is comfortable to be able to impart this intelligence to those Prophets of Evil, whose dismal forebodings do not seem to stand in any danger of a speedy realiza- tion. This may not be very agreeable, but it is nevertheless sternly true. The condition of affairs is bad enough as it is, without the exaggeration that has been so criminally in- dulged in ,eral Dr~jlatrult. A DIGEST OF THE DECISIONS OF THE Sr PRE1E COURT OPF PENNSYLVANIA, on the Subject of PROMISSORY NOTEs, since the Publication of the Last Edition of Whar- ton's Digest, from 5 Harris to 11 Casey, inclusive. 1. The holder of a note received as collate- ral security is bound to employ reasonable dilligencein its collection, and a conversion of it into a less security is such misuse of it as makes him responsible to the original debtor. Muirhead v. Kirkpatrick, 9 Harris, 237. 2. In an action on one of two notes which had been taken by the holder in lieu of a former note held by him, and which first note was alleged by the defendant to have been transferred to the plaintiff as a collateral security, an endorser of such original note is a competent witness for the plaintiff'to prove that the said original note was not received by the plaintiff as a collateral security, but had been transferred to him in payment of existing liabilities; the said endorser having been discharged by reason of an extension of time having been allowed in receiving the two notes and by the omission in the note in suit of one of the parties to the original note. Id. 3. Whether there was any new considera- tion for the execution of the note in suit, was a question of fact for the jury, and an instruc- tion calculated to mislead them as to its de- termination was error. Id. 4. The extension of the time of payment of a note is a valuable consideration for other notes taken in lieu of it; the compromise of a doubtful claim is also a sufficient considera- tion to support a promise. Id. 5. The release of one of the drawers of a former note and of the endorsers thereon in the taking of a new note, and, if the note were received by the plaintiff from the said endorsers as a collateral security, the assuming of the obligation to account to them for it, was a yielding of advantages and a submis- sion to inconveniences by the plaintiff which formed a sufficient consideration to support an action against the drawer of the new note. Id. 6. If a new note taken in lieu of another was founded on a valuable consideration in- dependent of that on which the original note was founded, the failure of the consideration of the former note is not a defence by th-, drawer in a suit against him on the last note, Id. 7* The decision (see 4 Harris, 117,) in fav- or of the competency of the party omitted as a drawer in taking the last note, reaffirmed, Id. 8. If a creditor, knowing that a debtor is in failing circumstances, gets from him, for part of his claim, a mortgage rubstantally covering all his property, and gets the debtor to obtain the endorsement of another person for another part of it, without revealing the fact of the mortgage, this is a fraud upon the endorser and discharges him from liability. Lancaster County Bank v. Albright, id. 228. 9. The giving notice to endorsers is the oficial duty of a notary; and when duly cer- tified and not contradieted or questioned the presumption is that it was given according to law. Knse I. Getchell, id., 503. 10. In the case of a negotiable note payable at the Lebanon tank In this State, the not- ary certified that he exhibited at said bank the original note, &c., and demanding pay- ment, received for answer that no provision was made there for the payment thereof, of which I gave notice in writing to the endors- ers of said note. In the absence of other evidence as to the character of the notice, it was Held, that the certificate was prima facie

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