Whitney

This suit was to" recover three thousand dollars on an instrument, in form a promissory note, dated July 14, 1915, and signed by the defendant. Defendant denied the execution of the note and the debt, and in a separate defense and by way of cross-complaint alleged facts to which further reference is made in this opinion, and which were claimed to constitute a complete defense to the action.

The judgment was in favor of the defendant. On this appeal by plaintiff numerous contentions are made, for an understanding of which it is necessary to state the facts disiclosed by the evidence.

The Leslie Salt Refining Company was a corporation of which Leslie D. Whitney was the president, his brother St. John Whitney was a member of its board of directors and business manager, and W. M. Roberts was a stockholder and a director. Roberts was also the cashier of the plaintiff bank. The Salt Company and Leslie D. Whitney were both customers of the plaintiff bank, and had been frequent borrowers for at least five years prior to July 1, 1915. All of the dealings of the defendant, both individually and on behalf of the Salt Company, with the bank had been carried on with Roberts as cashier. On…