Asian Intern. v. MERRILL LYNCH, PIERCE, ETC.

435 So. 2d 1058, 37 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 171, 1983 La. App. LEXIS 9032
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided June 28, 1983·No. 83 CA 0216·Published·Cited by 30 cases

Opinion

435 So.2d 1058 (1983)

ASIAN INTERNATIONAL, LTD.
v.
MERRILL LYNCH, PIERCE, FENNER AND SMITH, INC., et al.

No. 83 CA 0216.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

June 28, 1983.

*1060 Floyd J. Falcon, Jr., Baton Rouge, for plaintiff-appellant Asian Intern., Ltd.

Lee C. Kantrow, Baton Rouge, for defendant, third party plaintiff, plaintiff-in-reconvention-appellee Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc.

John S. Thibaut, Baton Rouge, for defendant-third party defendant-appellee H. Grady Smith, Jr.

Michael O. Heese, St. Francisville, for defendant-third party defendant-appellee Ben F. Fort, Jr.

Before LOTTINGER, COLE and CARTER, JJ.

CARTER, Judge.

This is an appeal by Asian International, Ltd. from a summary judgment in favor of Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith, Inc.[1]

On March 30, 1982, Asian International, Ltd. (Asian) filed suit against Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith, Inc. (Merrill Lynch), Ben F. Fort, Jr. (Fort), and H. Grady Smith, Jr. (Smith) alleging defendants' liability, individually and in solido, for tortious conversion of a $200,000.00 check and for damages for the loss of corporate opportunity resulting from such tortious conversion.[2]

The dispute among the parties arises from the following facts. On or about July 28, 1981, Cathay Trading Corporation delivered to Asian a check made payable to Asian International, Ltd. in the amount of $200,000.00, in full payment for ten separators sold by Asian to Cathay. Smith, the president of Asian, and Edmund C. McCallum, treasurer of Asian, subsequently endorsed said check to the order of Fort, in payment of an alleged loan obligation owed by Asian to Fort. Fort then deposited the endorsed check in his account with Merrill Lynch. Merrill Lynch credited the funds to Fort's account and received payment from the payor bank.

Merrill Lynch filed a motion for summary judgment claiming it was a holder in due course of the check and asserting that, as such, it took the instrument free from all claims, including those asserted by Asian.

The trial court granted the motion for summary judgment in favor of Merrill Lynch and dismissed Asian's suit.[3] The trial court based its judgment upon finding that there were no genuine issues of material fact and that Merrill Lynch was a holder in due course as a matter of law.

Asian appeals with the following specifications of error:

(1) The trial court erred in holding, as a matter of law, that Merrill Lynch sustained the burden of proving its status as a holder in due course; and
(2) The trial court erred in finding that there were no genuine issues of material fact.

SPECIFICATION OF ERROR NO. 1

The first issue is whether Merrill Lynch sustained its burden of proving its status as a holder in due course as a matter of law.

La.R.S. 10:3-302(1) defines a holder in due course as:

"... a holder who takes the instrument
(a) for value; and
(b) in good faith; and
(c) without notice that it is overdue or has been dishonored or any defense against or claim to it on the part of any person."

The status of a holder in due course is significant to the extent that as such he takes the instrument free from all claims to *1061 it on the part of any person and all defenses of any party to the instrument with whom the holder has not dealt, with minor exceptions. La.R.S. 10:3-305.[4]

In order for one to enjoy the status of a holder in due course, the four elements of La.R.S. 10:3-302(1) must exist simultaneously during possession of the negotiable instrument. La.R.S. 10:3-307(3) and the corresponding comments in the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) indicate that the person claiming the rights of a holder in due course must sustain his burden by affirmative proof of all elements.

HOLDER

Any person who asserts rights of a holder in due course must first prove that he is a "holder". A holder is a person who is in possession of ... an instrument ... drawn, issued, or endorsed to him or to his order or to bearer or in blank. La.R.S. 10:1-201.

Negotiation is the process by which the transferee of an instrument becomes a holder. La.R.S. 10:3-202(1).[5] The comments to that article in the UCC indicate that negotiation is a special form of transfer, the importance of which lies in the fact that it makes the transferee a holder. Stated another way, an endorsement by a holder of an instrument payable to order is necessary for a negotiation of the instrument, for only by a negotiation may a third party become a holder of the instrument. "Developments in the Law, 1980-1981: Banking Law," 42 LLR 330 (1982).

In the present case, the $200,000.00 check was delivered to Fort with the following endorsement:

"Asian International, Ltd.
s/n H. Grady Smith, Jr.
s/n Edmund C. McCallum
for deposit to
order of
Ben F. Fort, Jr."

In order for Merrill Lynch to become a holder of the instrument, the instrument had to be negotiated. Negotiation required an endorsement by Fort.

When Fort presented the check for deposit to his Merrill Lynch account, a Merrill Lynch employee wrote "pay to: Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith" on the instrument. The endorsement on the check prior to deposit appeared as follows:

"Asian International, Ltd.
s/n H. Grady Smith, Jr.
s/n Edmund C. McCallum
pay to:
Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith
for deposit to
order of
Ben F. Fort, Jr."

The check was then deposited into Fort's account.

Under La.R.S. 10:4-205(1), a depositary bank which has taken an item for collection may supply any endorsement of the customer which is necessary to title unless the item contains the words "payee's endorsement required" or the like. In the absence of such a requirement, a statement placed on the item by the depositary bank to the *1062 effect that the item was deposited by a customer or credited to his account is effective as the customer's endorsement. This provision was designed to speed up collections by eliminating any necessity to return to a non-bank depositor any items he may have failed to endorse.

La.R.S. 10:1-201 defines a bank as any person engaged in the business of banking. The receiving of deposits and issuing bills and notes has been defined as engaging in the banking business. (See Rosenblum v. Anglim, 135 F.2d 512, 9th Cir.1943). It was also held in the above cited case that although the banking business involves more than the accepting and paying out of deposits, an institution which exercises only these two functions may be carrying on a "banking business", if these things are done as a regular business. Under this definition, we find La.R.S. 10:4-205(1) applicable to Merrill Lynch, even though Merrill Lynch is not a bank incorporated under the provisions of Title 6 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes.[6]

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Asian Intern. v. MERRILL LYNCH, PIERCE, ETC., 435 So. 2d 1058, 37 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 171, 1983 La. App. LEXIS 9032 (La. Ct. App. 1983).

435 So. 2d 1058 (Asian Intern. v. MERRILL LYNCH, PIERCE, ETC.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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