The Negotiable Instruments Law
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TITLE I. NEGOTIABLE INSTRUMENTS IN GENERAL. Article 1. Form and Interpretation. Sec. Form of negotiable instru 16. Blanks; when may be filled. ment. 17. Incomplete instrument not de Certainty as to Sum; what livered. constitutes. 18. Delivery; When effectual; When promise is uncondi when presumed. tional. 19. Construction where instru Determinable future time; ment is ambiguous. what constitutes. 20. Liability of person signing in Additional provisions not af trade or assumed name. fecting negotiability. 21. Signature by agent; author Omissions; seal; particular ity, how shown. money. 22. Liability of person signing as When payable on demand. agent, etc. 10. When payable to order. 23. Signature by procuration; op 11. When payable to bearer. eration of. 12. Terms; when sufficient. 24. Indorsement by infant or cor 13. Date; presumption as to. poration; effect of. 14. Ante-dated and post-dated. 25. Forged signature; effect of. 15. Date; when may be inserted. Sec. 3. Form of negotiable instrument.—An instru ment, to be negotiable, must conform to the following requirements:" First, It must be in writing” and signed" by the maker or drawer; Second, It must contain an unconditional promise or order * to pay a certain" sum in money;" Third, It must be payable on demand" or at a fixed or determinable future time; * Fourth, It must be payable to order or to bearer;" and 27 28 THE NEGOTLABLE INSTRUMENTS LAW. Fifth, Where the instrument is addressed to a drawee, he must be named or otherwise indicated therein with reasonable certainty.” 1—These are the essential re 6 Hill 322; Brown v. McHugh, 35 quirements of the Law Merchant. Mich. 50. Daniel Neg. Inst. 5th ed., Sec. 27, A person though able to Write 28, 1566. his name may nevertheless sign by legal 2—The writing may be in pen his mark. The effect is party cil. Geary v. Physic, 5 B. & C. 234 the same as if the had writ Johnson, (1826); Brown v. Butchers Bank, ten his name. Bliss v. 162 Mass. 323. 6 Hill (N. Y.) 443. 4—The statute is but the 3—An instrument in the form ex pression of the uniform rule of of a bill of exchange Without date that, and without drawer's name but the law merchant to consti tute a negotiable instrument, the with acceptance by the drawee is promise or order must be absolute neither a bill of exchange nor a and Without any contingency that promissory note. It is only an in would embarrass the circulation choate instrument. The bill or of the instrument. White V. Cush note must be signed. M’Call v. ing, 88 Me. 339. In this case suit Taylor, 34 L. J. R. C. P. 365; was brought by the indorsee of an Reg. v. Harper, L. R. 7 Q. B. DiV. order in the following form: 78 and cases cited. $120. Piscataquis Savings Bank. Signing by stamp rubber is Val Pay James Lawler, or order, id. Cadillac State Bank V. Cadil one hundred and twenty dollars Heading Co., 129 lac Stave & and charge to my account On book Mich. 15. No. J. N. Cushing. A person may become bound by Witness. any mark or designation he thinks The bank book of the depositor proper to adopt, provided it be must accompany this order. used as a Substitute for his name Held: That without the Words and he intend to bind himself. If italicized the order is payable ab the name is not signed the holder solutely and there is no apparent is required to show that what was uncertainty affecting its negotia Written was intended to answer bility; with them, the order is the purpose of a signature. payable only upon contingency, or Brown v. Butchers Bank, supra. condition, and that is upon pro In this case the indorsement WaS duction of the drawer's bank book. made with lead pencil and in fig * * * The drawer has it in his ures thus: “1, 2, 8;” no name be power to defeat its payment by ing written. In such a case evi withholding the bank book. It dence that the party could write was the necessity of certainty and is immaterial. See Rogers v. Coit, precision in mercantile affairs and NEGOTIABLE INSTRUMENTS IN GENERAL. 29 the inconveniences which would Atl. 428 (a case under the Stat result if commercial paper was ute). incumbered With conditions and An instrument in the following contingencies, that led to the es form is negotiable: rule, tablishment of an inflexible “Mr. William Tebo will please that to be negotiable, paper must pay to R. J. Torpey or order payable absolutely be and without two hundred and fifty dollars and 2ny conditions or contingencies charge to my account. Due Oct. 1. to embarraSS its circulation. “John Ryan.” To same effect, Iron City Bank v. McCord, 139 Penn. St. 52. Torpey v. Tebo, 184 Mass. 307 The order or promise must be to (a case under the statute). pay out of the general account 5–It is the rule of the law of the drawer or maker. merchant that the Sum Ordered Or An order or promise to pay out promised to be paid must be cer of a particular fund is not uncon tain, else the instrument will not ditional. This is the well Settled be negotiable. Daniel’s Neg. Inst., rule of the law merchant. Wor 5th ed., Sec. 53. den V. Dodge, 4 Denio 159. The maxim “id certum est quod An instrument in form of a Certum reddi potest” applies; SO promissory note but made ex if the amount can be ascertained pressly subject to the conditions . from the instrument itself, the of a mortgage not payable abso rule as to certainty is Satisfied. lutely but only on certain contin Smith V. Clopton, 4 Tex. 109; gencies is not negotiable. Good Parsons v. Jackson, 99 U. S. 440. enow v. Curtis, 33 Mich. 505; In the former case the promise Humphrey v. Beckwith, 48 Mich. was to pay $1.50 per acre for 151; Brooke v. Struthers, 110 each and every acre of land lying Mich. 569; Dilley v. VanWie, 6 within certain described bound Wis. 206. See also Lamb V. aries. Subsequently there Was Story, 45 Mich. 488; Chandler v. added to the instrument the fol Carey, 64 Mich. 237; Wright v. lowing, which was signed by the Traver, 73 Mich. 493. See sec. 5. maker: “Since the Within Was A bill reading: Pay Julius C. Written, the land has been Sur Cable or order three hundred dol veyed and found to be sixty five lars, or what may be due on my acres, which will make the with deposit book number E. in, call for $97.50.” The note was (Signed) John Edwards made April 15, 1848; the addi is not negotiable, because payable tion November 10, 1848. It was out of a particular fund and the held that the note was a nego amount to be paid being made tiable instrument from the date to depend upon the adequacy of a of the addition, to-wit: Nov. 10, specified fund. Nat. Savings 1848. In the latter case the action Bank v. Cable, 73 Conn. 568; 48 was on bonds reciting that the 30 THE NEGOTIABLE INSTRUMENTS LAW. Vicksburg, Shreveport and Texas Plymell, 23 Kan. 402; Smith v. Railway Company is indebted to Crane, 33 Minn. 144. John Ray or bearer, for value A promise to pay a named sum received, in the sum of 225 l “with such additional premium sterling, or $1,000, lawful money as may arise or become due on of the United States of America, policy No. 50” renders the note to-wit: 225 l sterling, if the prin non-negotiable. Dodge V. Emer cipal and interest are payable in son, 34 Me, 96; Marrett V. Equi London, and $1,000 lawful money table Ins. Co. 54 Me. 537; Pal Of the United States of America, mer V. Ward, 6 Gray (Mass.) if the principal and interest are 340. payable in New York or New A promise to pay a named sum Orleans, etc. Each bond further “or what might be due after de on its face declares that “the pres ducting all advances and ex ident of Said Company is author penses,” renders the note non-ne ized to fix, by his indorsement, gotiable. Cushman V. Haynes, 20 the place of payment, of the prin Pick. 132. See Sec. 4. cipal and interest in conformity 6–The rule of the law mer with the terms of this obligation. chant is thus stated by Mr. Dan On the back of the bonds is en iel: “It is essential to the nego dorsed a printed blank in the tiability of a bill or note that it following words, to-wit: “I here purport to be only for the pay by agree that the within bond ment of money.” Daniel's Neg. and the interest coupons thereto Ins., 5th ed., sec. 59. attached shall be payable in Money is a generic and compre .” The uncertainty of the hensive term. It is not a syno amount payable, in the absence of nym of coin. It includes coin the required indorsement is of but is not confined to it. It in itself a defect which deprives cludes whatever is lawfully and these instruments of the charac actually current in buying and ter of negotiability. As they selling, of the value and as the stand they amount to a promise equivalent of coin. By universal to pay so many pounds, or So consent under the Sanction of all many dollars, without Saying courts everywhere, or almost which.