H J Stanyo, Esquire—Where a negotiable instrument is issued in satisfaction or discharge of a debt already due, it operates, prima facie, only as a conditional payment, not extinguishing the debt, but only suspending the original remedy.

2. If the debtor, on whom the onus lies, proves that the creditor has accepted such an instrument in absolute novation of the original contract, than such substituted contract, while it remains in force, affords a complete defence to an action on the original contract.

3. In either of the above cases, if the instrument intended to constitute, or Constituting, a novation between the creditor and the debtor, is, or becomes invalid or inoperative for any reason for which the debtor is responsible, or is dishonoured, the rights of the creditor under the original contract remain unaffected, or are revived, as the case may be.

The judgment of the High Court 'first sets out facts which, for the purposes of this report, may be summer ised thus :

Defendants gave the plaintiffs and the plaintiffs accepted four hundis in satisfaction of an antecedent debt. The plaintiffs having said on these hundis, the defendants repudiated them and pleaded thai they wer