This was an action of assumpsit, brought on the 24th of December, 1886, by James Bunyan and James Meehan, executors of the last will and testament of Edward Clark, deceased, citizens of New York, against Michael Gormley and Morton Culver, citizens of Illinois, to recover a balance due on a certain promissory note dated at Chicago, May 15, 1877, and due in three years, with interest at 9 per cent. per annum, payable semi-annually until due, and 10 per cent. thereafter, at the Chemical Bank of New York, made and signed by the defendants, payable to their own order, and by them indorsed in blank, and also the recover the amount due on six coupon notes of the same date, of $450 each, representing the semi-annual interest on the principal note, all of which notes the plaintiffs claimed to own as such executors. The declaration consisted of a specialcount on the notes, describing them as having been indorsed and delivered to Edward Clark by the defendants, alleging that the same were lost, and could not, therefore, be produced in court, and stating that the coupon notes represented interest upon the principal note; and also of the usual common counts in assumpsit of indebtedness for work and labor, materials, money lent and advanced, paid, laid out, and expended, had and received, etc., to Edward Clark. Attached to the declaration were copies of the coupon notes, and what was intended to be a copy of the principal note, but which differed from it in some minor particulars hereafter referred to. The plaintiffs also made profert of the letters testamentary issued to them as executors of the last will and testament of Edward Clark, deceased. The defendants put in a plea of the general issue, and filed an affidavit of merits, March 10, 1887. On the 8th of December, 1887, the cause then being on the trial call of cases for that day, the defendants moved to be allowed to file instanter four additional pleas, viz.: (1) Plea of nonest factum; (2) plea of the statutes of limitation of New York; (3) plea of the statutes of limitation of Illinois; and (4) plea of satisfaction. This motion was denied by the court, and the defendants excepted. Afterwards, on the 10th day of December, 1887, the case being still on the trial call of cases for that day, the defendants moved the court to be allowed to file instanter additional pleas of set-off, claiming as due them from the plaintiffs the sum of $50,000, and also former recovery. The court overruled this motion also, and the defendants excepted. The case went to trial before Judge DYER and a jury on the 15th of December, 1887. At the trial the plaintiffs offered in evidence the original principal note for $10,000 and the six coupon notes, (which it was shown had been found a few days prior thereto,) all indorsed payable to the plaintiffs, and offered evidence to prove the execution of the notes by the defendants. The $10,000 note had a credit of $8,848.50, indorsed as of September 10, 1878, and the coupon notes were marked, 'Paid.' The defendants objected to the introduction of these notes, claiming (1) that they differed from the notes set out in the special count of the declaration; (2) that they were not admissible under the common counts, which charged an indebtedness to Edward Clark, and not to the plaintiffs; (3) that the coupon notes were not described in the special count of the declaration, and were not admissible under the common counts, because the common counts all ran to Edward Clark, and not to plaintiffs; and (4) because the coupon notes were marked, 'Paid.' The objections were overruled, and the defendants excepted. The indorsements upon the notes were explained as follows: All of the notes had been secured by a deed of trust to Adolph Loeb upon certain described property. This trust-deed was foreclosed by Loeb, and on the 10th of September, 1878, the property was sold, under the power of sale contained in the deed, for $8,848.50. Loeb thereupon made the indorsement on the note to represent the amount of money received by him as trustee. Loeb also testified that the coupon notes had been marked, 'Paid,' by his clerk, without any authority, and that such marking was incorrect. It was further shown in evidence that the amount due on the notes at the time the sale was made was $11,027.79; and that Loeb, as trustee, deducted from the proceeds of the sale the following items: $374.09 for redeeming the property from tax-sales for the taxes of 1876 and 1877; $16, costs of advertising the sale of the property; and $200 as his fees for the sale of the property,-in all, $590.09; leaving a balance of $8,257.91 to be applied on the note, September 10,1878, which left $2,769.88 due on the note on that day. Interest was then computed on that amount at 9 per cent.