Bowie ex rel. Ladd v. Duvall
Bowie ex rel. Ladd v. Duvall
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
The statute 3d & 4th Anne, ch. 9, declares that promissory notes shall be assignable or endorseable over in the same manner as inland bills of exchange are, or may be, according to the custom of merchants; and power is hy the same statute
name of the payee, because the payee having transferred his interest, can have no competency to maintain an action.
it is true, that if a note duly endorsed in full, should in the regular course of commercial dealing, come back to the hands of a prior endorser, or of the payee, it would he competent for such person as the holder to strike out the endorsement, and sue in his own name. These positions are fully maintained by the Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of Dugan vs. The United Stales, 3 Wheat. 183, where it is said “that, if any person who endorses a bill of exchange to another, whether for value or for purposes of collection, shall come to the possession thereof again, he shall be regarded as the” bona fule holder and proprietor of such bill, and shall he entitled to recovo* notwithstanding there may he on it, one or more endorsements m full, subsequent to the one to him, without producing any receipt Dr endorsement back from either of such endorsees, whoso Dames he may strike from the bill, or not,., as he pleases,”
The views which have been submitted of the law arising out of the first bill of exceptions, disposes of the two first prayers in the third exception.
We also concur with the court below in the opinions expressed by them on the third and fourth prayers in the third exception. If the right was in Ladd fy Co. there could be no recovery by the plaintiff on the money counts; the promise to pay must be considered as enuring to the benefit of him who had
In the second bill of exceptions, tlie court decide that no recovery could be bad by the plaintiif, because be bad not averred in his declaration, that the amount of the said note was demanded by him at the bouse of Washington Bowie, and because.no proof was given to the jury of a demand. The general doctrine that where a note is payable on demand, at a particular place, the averment of a demand and proof of notice is necessary, seems to be well established law in England, as will be seen by consulting the opinions of the twelve judges, delivered in the case of Rowe and Young, % Broderip fy Bingham, even in the case of a suit against the maker of a note. So too it was settled by that decision, that if an acceptance was made payable at a particular place, the averment of a demand and proof thereof was considered indispensable to a recovery, because in each case the place of payment according to the idea of the judges, is made part and parcel of the contract. Such, however, were the inconveniences of the rule, that Parliament, by the statute of 2 Geo. IF. ch. 78, declared that an acceptance at a particular place, should have the effect of a general acceptance, unless the acceptance was made payable at a particular place, and not elsewhere. These English decisions, which have in part been abrogated by the Legislature, as departures from commercial usage and policy, and, where, not interfered with by them, have been considered by some of her most eminent jurists, as departures from the law, [vide Mr. Justice Bayley’s and Mr. Justice .ShhoPs commenlary on Sanderson vs. Bowes, 2 Brod. & Bing. 180, j have no authoritative force here, because the cases in which these doctrines have been settled, have been adjudicated since our revolution, and
The Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of the United States Bank vs. Smith, 11 Wheat. 175, after adverting to the British decisions on tins question say, that a contrary opinion has been entertained in the courts of this country, that a demand on the maker of a note, or the acceptor of a bill, payable at a specific place, need not be averred in the declaration, or proved at the trial. That it is not a condition precedent to the right of recovery, and they intimate their opinion to be in accordance with such determinations. In New York, the law has been considered as settled in the same way, from the case of Foden vs. Sharp, 4 Johns. Rep. 184, decided in the year 1809, where the court say “the holder of a bill of ex- . change need not show a demand of payment of the acceptor, any more than of the maker of a note;” and in 17 Johns. Rep. 248, the court say, in commenting on this case, that such was the doctrine of the English courts at that time, and they there decide that a demand at the place where accepted, is not a condition precedent to the right to recover, and that of course it need not be averred in the declaration.
In deciding in this case, that no demand was necessary to be made, we shall contradict no decided case in this country, which has fallen under our observation. The note it must be , recollected; is payable at the house of the payee and plaintiff, and is not payable on demand there, but sixty days after date. In 11 Wheat. 171, United Slates Bank vs. Smith, it is decided, that if the bank at which a bill or note is payable, be the holder of the bill or note, no demand will be necessary, but an examination into the state of the accounts of the maker in bank, to see whether he has deposited funds, is all that is necessary to be done, to enable the party to recover. The same decision has been made in 12 Mass. 404, with the exception that no examination-of the books was required. In New York, Caldwell vs. Cassedy, 8 Cowan, 271, it was decided, that the place does
It is staled in Sanderson vs. Bowes (14 East. Rep. 500) that the place of payment is inserted in promissory notes as a matter of convenience to the makers, for-it would he very inconvenient if they should bo compelled to answer them every where, when it is notorious that they have made provision to answer them at a particular place. If such be the practice in England, where the makers of notes have generally their bankers, with whom funds are set apart for the special payment of their notes, the construction which prevails there, upon this clause of such an instrument, may have grown out of the commercial usages of the country. But our usages here would seem to lead to a different construction, for it is a matter of notoriety, that parties to this commercial instrument generally collect them in our cities, through the medium of the banking institutions; and they are most frequently made payable there, or at a particular place, not for the convenience of the drawer, hut for the benefit of the holder, that his collection may be facilitated. And this case furnishes an illustration of the fact, for it is perfectly obvious that the home of the payee was the place of payment, here to suit the convenience of the payee, not the maker.
JUDGMENT AFFIRMED.
Reference
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- Bowie, use of Ladd v. Duvall
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