Horace Gray

“ A material alteration of a written contract by a party to it discharges a party who does not authorize or consent to the alteration, because it destroys the identity of the contract, and substitutes a different agreement for that into which he entered. In the application of this rule it is not only well settled that a material alteration of a promissory note by the payee or holder discharges the maker, even as against a subsequent innocent indorsee for value ”

“ And the addition of a new person as a principal maker of a promissory note, rendering all the promisors, apparently, jointly and equally liable, not only to the holder, but also as between themselves, and so far tending to lessen the ultimate liability of the original maker or makers, has been held in the courts of some of the states to be a material alteration. ”

“ The husband and Krueger were members of a partnership engaged in carrying on a mill, Krueger being the active partner, and Werges and his wife living on a farm which belonged to her. The plaintiff agreed with Krueger to lend to the husband, for the benefit of the partnership, six thousand dollars on the security of the farm; and the wife agreed, for the accommodation of the partnership, to execute a mortgage of the farm. The husband signed a note, payable to Krueger, or order, and corresponding in terms with the mortgage ”