Warner v. Citizens' Bank
Warner v. Citizens' Bank
Opinion of the Court
On the 2d' day of May, 1893, respondent bought two drafts or checks, aggregating $800, of the appellant, issued by itself on that day to respondent as payee, and drawn upon the Columbia National Bank, of Chicago, 111. On the 11th day of- May, and before, said drafts were presented for payment, the Columbia National Bank failed. The drafts were subsequently, on the 10th day of June following, presented to the drawee bank for payment, which was refused. Payment of the same was then demanded of the appellant bank, and was refused; and this action was brought to recover the amount of the same, and costs of protest. To a complaint alleging these facts, the appellant bank answered that at the time of the delivery of the checks or drafts to the respondent, and at all times thereafter up to its suspension, appellant bank had money with the Columbia National Bank to pay all drafts or checks drawn against it, and that, if these drafts had been presented for payment with due diligence, they would have been paid, and that, in consequence of respondent’s negligence in failing to present the same for payment, the amount of money so left on deposit with the Columbia National Bank for
It caía hardly be doubted that, goveimed by the rules of the law merchant, the conceded facts would have required a diffierent judgment; but section 4544, Comp. Laws, seems to have substituted a new rule of diligence for that of the law merchant. After having defined a bill of exchange, the section cited says: “If a bill of exchange, payable at sight, or on demand, without interest, is not duly presented for payment within ten days after the time in which it could, with reasonable diligence, be transmitted to the proper place for such presentment, the drawer and indorsers are exonerated, unless such presentment is excused.’’ We do not find this section, or anything substantially like it, elsewhere than in the Civil Codes of California and the Dakotas. We do not find in either state any case in which this provision has been construed or applied to facts. All the California cases cited by appellant were prior to the adoption of this provision in 1873. In the commissioners’ notes to the California Code, it is said that this was intended to make more definite the rule of the law merchant as to the 1 ‘due diligence” that must be used in presenting the bill for payment. The provision carries that suggestion upon its face, and it must be so understood and construed. Its effect is to allow the holder of such bill or draft 10 days beyond the time in which it could, with reasonable diligence, be transmitted to the proper place for presentment, to present the same for payment, and for such time to continue the liability of-the drawer thereon. The same policy and purpose of more definitely defining the
The appellant, however, contends that it should have been allowed to amend its answer, and set up the law prevailing in Illinois, as the place of perfora: anee of the contract. But as between appellant, the owner of the bill, and respondent, the payee, the contract was not one to be performed in Illinois. Section 4523, Comp. Laws, is as follows: “The rights and obligations of the drawer of a bill of exchange are the same as those of the first indorser of any other negotiable instrument.” The liability of such indorser is fixed by section 4479 as follows: “Every indorser of a negotioable instrument warrants to every subsequent holder thereof who is not liable thereon to him, * * * that if the instrument is dishonored the indorser will,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Warner v. Citizens' Bank of Parker
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- 1. Section 4544, Comp. Laws, was designed to more definitely define the time within which a bill of exchange should be presented for payment, and, in that respect, changes the rule of the law merchant in this jurisdiction. 2. The drawer of a bill of exchange contracts, subject to conditions of notice, to pay at the place where the bill is drawn, if the same is not paid by the drawee; so that— 3. As between drawer and payee, the place of performance is the place where the bill is drawn. (Syllabus by the court.