Creative Press v Harman

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1973
• Docket Number: [1971. No. 317]
• Date: 01 January 1973
• Court: High Court

(H.C.)

Creative Press

and

Harman

Note payable "on or before" specified date - Whether an unconditional promise to pay at a fixed or determinable future time - Joint and several liability - Bills of Exchange Act, 1882 (45 46 Vict. c. 61), ss.83, 85.

Section 83, sub-s. 1, of the Bills of Exchange Act, 1882, enacts that a promissory note is an unconditional promise in writing made by one person to another, signed by the maker, engaging to pay on demand or "at a fixed or determinable future time" a sum certain in money to a specified person. Each of the defendants signed a document which stated that they jointly and severally, Promised to pay the plaintiffs "on or before the 1st day of November 1970" the sum of £2,000 for value received. The defendants delivered the document to the plaintiffs on the 5th October, 1970. The plaintiffs brought an action in the High Court claiming from the defendants the sum of £2,000 and interest on the basis that the plaintiffs were the payees named in a promissory note that had been dishonoured by non-payment. Held by Pringle J., in giving judgment for the...