San Joaquin Valley Bank v. Gate City Oil Co.

This was an action to recover six thousand dollars upon a promissory note alleged to have been executed by the defendants to the plaintiff. The defendants answered denying the execution of the note. The court made findings' and gave judgment in favor of the plaintiff against all the defendants. The Gate City Oil Company and J. F. Lynch appealed from the judgment within sixty days after its entry. They claim, in support of their appeal, that they did not execute the note set out in the complaint and that there is a variance between the allegations and the proof concerning the note. The merits of these objections can best be shown by a chronological statement of the case.

In 1907 the Gate City Oil Company was in need of the sum of six thousand dollars. Its directors passed a resolution authorizing its officers to negotiate a loan for that amount. Upon this authority certain of its officers, including Lynch, appeared at the plaintiff’s banking house and it was there agreed between them and the plaintiff that the plaintiff would loan six thousand dollars upon the joint note of the Gate City Oil Company and the three defendants, Smith, Lynch, and Giottonini. A printed form of note was…