Page:Bradley v. Trammel.pdf/2

Rh  Rh   bearer, the sum of eight hundred and ninety dollars, six months after date. Witness my hand, this 17th of July, 1824.

"N T."

The assignment of the note is set out in the declaration in the following terms: "That the said John G. Jackson afterwards transferred and delivered the said note to the said plaintiff, Bradley, who thereby, then and there became, and still is, the lawful bearer thereof, and entitled to demand and receive the said sum of eight hundred and ninety dollars from the defendant, Trammel."

The defendant has filed a general demurrer to the declaration, and the question presented is, whether the plaintiff can maintain this action in his own name. If he can, it is in virtue of the assignment of the note to him by Jackson, to whom it was executed. And if the assignment set out in the declaration is such as is required by our statute, there can be no doubt that the plaintiff is entitled in his own name to maintain the action. Our statute is in the following words: "All bonds, bills, and promissory notes, for money or property, shall be assignable, and the assignee may sue for them in the same manner as the original holder thereof could do. And it shall and may be lawful for the persons to whom the said bonds, bills, or notes are assigned, made over, and indorsed in his name, to commence and prosecute his action at law, for the recovery of the money mentioned in such bonds, bills, or notes, or so much thereof as shall appear to be due at the time of such assignment, in like manner as the person to whom the same were made payable, might or could have done." Geyer's Digest, 66. It will be perceived that the statute makes all bonds, bills, and notes assignable, and authorizes the person to whom a bond, bill, or note is assigned, made over, and indorsed, to sue in his own name, in like manner as the payee or obligee might have done. Taking the whole of the acts together, it is manifest, that to enable the assignee to sue in his own name, the bond, bill, or note must be assigned, made over, and indorsed. A bare assignment and making over by delivery, without an indorsement, is not sufficient, because the statute requires the bond or