Page:North Dakota Reports (vol. 2).pdf/502

 it would be proper to look into the surrounding circumstances to discover the purpose of the parties, but the meaning of the agreement is too manifest to warrant extrinsic explanation. It is not even an agreement with Mrs. Hall on the part of Brandenburg to guaranty her grocery bill. It merely recites that such a contract has been made with her in explanation and to limit the scope of the agreement which follows, to pay twelve per cent. interest from date of payment on all sums which Brandenburg should pay because of such recited guaranty. There is not a line, word, or syllable in the instrument expressing any present agreement on the part of Brandenburg to do anything; not even an agreement with Mrs. Hall to guaranty the grocery bill, not to mention its failure to express any contract with plaintiff or any one else to guaranty such bill. The instrument, even if it had contained an express agreement on the part of Brandenburg with Mrs. Hall to guaranty her grocery bill, would not be one on which plaintiff could sue, unless it showed upon its face, or unless the surrounding circumstances demonstrated that the parties intended that Mrs. Hall should use that particular instrument as a means of securing her the necessary credit to make the purchases therein mentioned, or unless it was made for his benefit. The plaintiff, who is a stranger to this contract, can sue on it only on one of two theories. One theory is that the parties, by their conduct, have made that a letter of credit which, upon its face, does not purport to be and is not a letter of credit. Perhaps even then he could not maintain an action on it. The plaintiff was not misled by the paper or by Brandenburg, as he relied on neither in giving the credit, but solely upon Mr. Hall’s statement that his wife had a guarantee from Brandenburg. Plaintiff never saw the paper until after the goods were sold. Under all the cases it is necessary that the person claiming the benefit of a letter of credit must have relied thereon in making the sale. 13 Amer. & Eng. Enc. Law 238; Pollock v. Helm, 54 Miss. 1. He can connect himself with the letter of credit only by showing that it was on the strength of the promise therein contained that he made the sale. Said the court in Pollock v. Helm: “The very pith and marrow of the plaintiff's right to recover is