Florida Nat. Bank v. Merchants' & Farmers' Bank
Florida Nat. Bank v. Merchants' & Farmers' Bank
Opinion of the Court
(after stating the facts as above). The case is now before the court on the demurrer of defendant. Of course, the court in deciding this demurrer must accept as true all the allegations of the petition which are well pleaded, and also such inferences as a jury may reasonably draw therefrom.
The Circuit Court of Appeals of the Eighth Circuit had before it just such a case as that supposed in the preceding sentence in the case of Exchange National Bank of Spokane v. Bank of Little Rock, reported in 58 Fed. 140 to 143, 7 C. C. A. 111, 22 L. R. A. 686, in which the court, speaking through Sanborn, Circuit Judge, held that where a clerk, acting in his individual matter, raised a draft which had already been completed and signed by the cashier of the bank for the sum of $25 to $2,500, and negotiated same to an innocent purchaser, the bank was not bound; that the forgery by the clerk, and not the negligence of the bank, was the proximate cause of the loss; and that in the transaction in question the clerk did not act as an employe of the bank, but in an inconsistent relation. The cotirt in that case draws a distinction between cases where officers of banks execute checks or notes leaving blanks therein, which are subsequently filled in, and tire instruments then sold to innocent purchasers, and cases where completed checks or notes are executed by bank officials, and afterwards raised by subordinates in the bank or other persons. Although there is a conflict of authorities on the subject, the court thinks that tire reasoning of Judge Sanborn in the case in question is sound, and it gives its full assent to same. The decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Moores v. Citizens’ National Bank of Piqua, 111 U. S. 156, 4 Sup. Ct. 345, 28 L. Ed. 385, cited above, is to the same effect.
' However, in the case at bar, the .petition expressly alleges that plaintiff sent the stock in question, not to the cashier, J. B. Smith, but to the '“defendant bank” itself, and that the “defendant bank” received this stock and undertook to have smaller certificates reissued and returned to plaintiff. The plaintiff, therefore, was careful not to attempt to deal with J. B. Smith himself in the matter, but undertook to deal with the bank; and, having intrusted 160 shares of stock to the bank to be reissued in smaller certificates, it had the right to have returned to it the whole amount of 160 shares, and if a smaller amount was returned, the bank, under the allegations of the petition, would be liable for the deficit. The court is compelled to take the allegations of the petition as they stand. What the evidence will show on tire trial is
It is a maxim in equity that, where one of two innocent persons must suffer by the act of a third person, he who puts it in the power •of the third person to inflict the injury must bear the loss. It is necessary for a person, in order to take advantage of this principle, to show that he is innocent and not negligent. The plaintiff bank, under the allegations of its petition, exercised due care, and was entirely innocent in the matter, and therefore the loss should fall on the defendant bank, as the defendant bank, by its employment of J. B. Smith as cashier, put it in his power to do the wrong in question. However, if on the trial of the case it should develop that the plaintiff bank was negligent, and therefore not an innocent party, but knew or ought to have known that the letter would be received by Cashier Smith and that he would handle the transaction, then it should suffer the loss, because by so sending the stock to Cashier Smith it placed it in his power to commit the fraud complained of.
An order, therefore, will be entered in the case, overruling the demurrer of defendant on all the grounds except the sixteenth, and requiring plaintiff to file the amendment above suggested.
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Reference
- Full Case Name
- FLORIDA NAT. BANK OF GAINESVILLE, FLA. v. MERCHANTS' & FARMERS' BANK OF CLAXTON, GA.
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published