Provincial Bank v O'Brien

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1944
• Date: 01 January 1944
• Court: High Court

Provincial Bank

and

O'Brien

Acknowledgment - Sufficiency Money due under promissory note - Acknowledgment of debt coupled with offer to sign new note - Whether implied promise to pay - Common Law Procedure Amendment Act (Ir.), 1853 (16 17 Vict., c. 113), ss. 20, 24.

In 1931 the defendant and M.R. signed a joint and several promissory note in favour of the plaintiff bank for £54, the defendant being a surety for M.R., the principal debtor. This sum became due in 1932. In 1939 the defendant, being pressed for payment of this and another similar debt, wrote two letters to the bank in which she stated that she was unable to pay, referred the bank to M.R.for payment, and added:—"I am willing to sign and renew these bills if the Bank will do it until such time as they would be able to come to a settlement with" M.R. In answer to an action brought in 1942 for payment of this sum the defendant pleaded that the action was...