Holbrook

This was an action brought to recover upon a promissory note for the sum of fifteen hundred dollars signed by the defendants and payable to one J. B. Graves or order one month after date and transferred by said Graves to plaintiff before maturity.

The defendants in their answer denied that the note had ever been delivered to said Graves, alleged that the same had been transferred to the plaintiff after maturity, and had been taken by him from Graves with notice of the fact that it was without consideration, and further alleged that said note had been obtained by said Graves through certain fraudulent representations which would have entitled said defendants to avoid said note in the hands of any but a bona fide transferee for value before maturity and without notice.

When the cause came on for trial the trial court refused to permit defendants to make proof of their said defense of fraudulent misrepresentations in avoidance of said note until they had presented evidence to show that the plaintiff was not a bona fide purchaser of said note for value and before maturity. In an attempt to make this showing the defendants offered evidence of the fact that Mr. C. L. MeEnerney, who…