Marine National Bank v. Humphreys
Marine National Bank v. Humphreys
Opinion of the Court
The plaintiff, duly organized and existing under the national banking act, brought this action against two of the defendants, as the makers, and the defendant Winchell, as indorser, of a promissory note.
After the formal allegations, and a statement that it was payable in the city of Duluth, the complaint alleged that, before the maturity of the note, it was delivered to a certain bank in Minneapolis, for collection, by defendants Fletcher, Rockwood & Dawson, and by said Minneapolis bank delivered to plaintiff bank, located at Duluth, for collection purposes; that thereupon, before maturity, and by mistake as to the due day, plaintiff presented it for payment, which was refused, and thereupon it caused the note to be protested for nonpayment; that said note and protest were at once returned by plaintiff to the Minneapolis bank, where the mistake as to the day of maturity was discovered and reported to plaintiff; and the note was again sent to plaintiff, and thereafter, and at the proper time, duly presented to the makers for payment, which was again refused; and that plaintiff immediately caused said note
The demurrer should have been sustained. The defective pleading was not well drawn; for a very few words would have made it sufficient. There was no averment that the Minneapolis bank was authorized to transfer and deliver the note to plaintiff upon its payment, or even that Fletcher, Rockwood & Dawson had received the money paid by plaintiff, or that they had any knowledge of the transaction, or had in any way ratified it. It could not be inferred that authority to transfer and deliver the note to plaintiff upon payment had been conferred upon the Minneapolis bank from the averment that it had so transferred and delivered as the agent of Fletcher, Rockwood & Dawson; for it had been previously alleged that it received the note from them simply for collection. The complaint was insufficient, because it failed to connect Fletcher, Rockwood & Dawson, in any manner, either before or after payment by plaintiff, with the transaction between the latter and the bank to which they delivered the note for collection, and of which they made the somewhat singular demand, under the alleged circumstances, for payment.
Upon the oral argument, defendants’ counsel frankly admitted that, with knowledge of the facts, the owner of the note had re
■Order reversed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- MARINE NATIONAL BANK v. A. E. HUMPHREYS and Others
- Status
- Published