Dirnfeld v. Fourteenth Street Savings Bank
Dirnfeld v. Fourteenth Street Savings Bank
Opinion of the Court
Shepard delivered the opinion of the-Court:
The general contention of the appellant is correct, nor has-it been denied that the verdict cannot have any support in the evidence of the defendant tending to show that plaintiff had agreed to the condition that he was not permitted to draw against uncollected checks received as deposits, as that evidence was disputed. Nor on the other hand, did the plaintiff testify that defendant had agreed that he might draw against such checks as if they were deposits of money. The farthest he-went was to say that occasional checks drawn by him in part against deposited checks had been honored during the period of his account with the hank. It is proper to say, also, that while the natural inference from the simple statement of the plaintiff that the check was indorsed by him when delivered doubtless is that the indorsement was in blank, that is to say, of his name without the prefix “for collection,” or “for credit” even, it is an inference that must necessarily be deduced on the motion to direct a verdict.
The single question presented by the motion to direct the-verdict is whether the receipt of the check, indorsed in blank, as a deposit, and its entry in the bank book of the plaintiff, was equivalent in law to a deposit of money, and therefore made it the duty of defendant to honor the note when presented ? In other words, was it the legal effect of the transaction to vest the ownership of the check in the defendant, or simply to constitute it the agent of the plaintiff, merely, for its collection? If the defendant became the owner of the cheek, the direction of the verdict for the defendant was erroneous. If it became merely the agent for collection, the verdict was right, because the collection had not been made at the time the note was dishonored, and without its inclusion plaintiff did not have sufficient funds in the defendant’s hands to meet it. It is settled law that when money is deposited generally in a
-Of course, this relation of creditor and debtor created by the receipt of the indorsed check, and its entry to the credit of the depositor as money, would not subsist in the face of a direct notice and understanding to the contrary. But whether there was such understanding in this case is a disputed fact, which must be submitted to the jury.
Being of the opinion, for the reasons given, that it waa
Reference
- Full Case Name
- DIRNFELD v. FOURTEENTH STREET SAVINGS BANK
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Banks and Banking. Tn the absence of a contrary understanding, when a bank receives from a depositor a check payable to the depositor and indorsed in blank by him, and places the amount to the depositor’s credit, the relation of creditor and debtor between them is created, and not that of principal and agent; and the entry of such deposit in the bank book of the depositor is equivalent in law to a deposit of money.