Bank v. Bank

49 Ohio St. (N.S.) 351
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedApril 26, 1892
StatusPublished

This text of 49 Ohio St. (N.S.) 351 (Bank v. Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bank v. Bank, 49 Ohio St. (N.S.) 351 (Ohio 1892).

Opinion

BRADBURY, J.

There is no conflict in the evidence relating to any material fact in this case. The petition avers that the plaintiff in error had purchased the note, which is the subject of controversy between the parties hereto, in due course of business before it became due. This, it is true, the answer of the defendant in error denies, but the cashier of the plaintiff in error, G. B. Harman, states directly and unequivocally in his deposition, that his bank purchased the paper of the payee, S. J. Patterson, on August 20, 1888, five days after its date, at a discount of seven per cent.; that the discount amounted to $5.07, all which he says is shown by the books of the bank. Mr. Eichelbérger, book-keeper for Mr. Patterson, is equally explicit. No attempt is made by the cross-examination or otherwise, to cast a suspicion upon, or to discredit these two witnesses, or impeach the correctness of the books of the bank; nor is any evidence adduced that in the slightest degree contradicts their statements. Under these circumstances it cannot be presumed, even to support the judgment rendered, that the court of common pleas found this evidence to be false and totally disregarded it in making up its judgment.

The real contention between the parties was whether Patterson, the endorser of the promissory note, had been discharged from liability to the plaintiff in error by reason of the negligence of the defendant in error. The note had been transmitted to defendent in error for collection and was not paid at maturity. If defendant in error, by its negligence, had discharged the endorser, then it should be held liable for the damages it thereby caused; but if, notwithstanding this alleged negligence, Patterson remained liable, it should be exonerated, for all the duty it owed to the plaintiff in error, in case the note was not paid, was to take such action as would charge the endorser.

When the note matured the defendant in error notified the makers and one of them came to its banking house. A [359]*359plain and simple duty then confronted the defendant in error; either to require payment of the note, or in default thereof, to take such action, as by the law merchant, was necessary to charge the endorser. It did neither. That the note was conditionally paid, is suggested; what that may mean in this connection is not clear. No doubt, that, as between the holder and the maker of a promisory note, a conditional payment may be made; but the rules of the commercial law require a holder, who intends to hold an endorser liable, to give notice to the latter of the default of the maker. Anything less than a full and absolute payment is a default, for nothing less than that measures the duty of the maker. In this case, however, there was no conditional payment made. True, the defendant in error had in its hands the means of enforcing .payment but did nothing; it simply accepted the maker’s' promise that, if Patterson did not give further time, they would pay the note. If the defendant in error had given notice to the plaintiff in error of the default of the maker, it would have discharged its duty, for it would have afforded the latter an opportunity to give notice to Patterson. Lawson et al. v. Bank, 1 Ohio St. 206.

Where, however, a holder of a promissory note passes by an immediate endorser, and serves notice of non-payment upon one more remote, he cannot avail himself of the time the immediate endorser would have had to serve the remote one, if the holder had given notice to the former; but the holder in that case must give notice to the remote endorser within the same time that he is required to give it to the immediate endorser. 1 Parsons on N. & B. 514; Dobree v. Eastwood, 3 Car. & P. 250; Simpson v. Turney, 5 Hump. 419; Rowe v. Tipper, 13 C. B. 249; Marsh v. Maxwell, 2 Camp. 210. Therefore, if the letter of Fulton & Peters, had been sufficient in form and substance to fix the liability of Patterson, it was mailed too late, and for that reason he was discharged.

This release of Patterson was an-accomplished fact before the makers of the note applied to him to extend the time of payment. The omission of the bank to require payment, or in default therof to give the necessary notice to charge [360]*360Patterson was caused by tlie solicitations of the makers, Fulton & Peters. The most careful scrutiny of the record fails to disclose that Patterson, up to this time, said or did anything' to mislead the bank or to induce it to relax its •vigilence, or omit any step necessary in law to charge him as endorser.

Patterson, therefore, had a perfect defense against any .action to charge him as an endorser, unless, by his subsequent conduct, he has forfeited his right to set up this discharge.

A subsequent promise to pay, when made with full ^knowledge of the facts, has been held to be evidence of a •demand and notipe, or to imply a previous waiver thereof. Myers et al. v. Standart et al, 11 Ohio St. 29; Hibbard v. Russell, 16 N. H. 410; Robbins et al. v. Pinckard et al., 5 Sm. & M. (Miss.) 51; Lewis et al. v. Brehme, 33 Md. 412; McPhetres v. Plalley's Executor, 82 Me. 72; Mense v. Osbern, 5 Mo. 544; Loose v. Loose, 36 Penn. St. 538; Kilby v. Rochussen, 18 C. B. (N. S.) 357.

In the case under consideration, however, no promise to pay was made by Patterson, unless the following letter written by him to Fulton & Peters in reply to theirs of the 19th of October, asking for an extension of the time of payment can be construed into such promise:

Dayton, O., October 20, 1887.
'“Messrs. Fueton & Peters, Wilmington, Ohio.
“Gentlemen: — -Yours of 19th at hand, and we have instructed our bank (to whom the note belongs, we having-discounted same) to grant extension to October 25th. Please honor it at that time, and much oblige,
“Yours truly,
“S. J. PATTERSON.”

If this letter should be construed to contain an implied promise to pay the note, yet as it was written without any knowledge on the part of the writer that he had been discharged from liability it does hot fall within the principles upon which a subsequent promise to pay has been held to bind an indorser. Tibbetts et al. v. Dowd, 23 Wendell, 379.

[361]*361Is Patterson estopped to set up bis discharge by reason of his letter of the 20th of October, 1888, granting an extension to the makers of the note?

It is true that the defendant in error could have passed by the plaintiff in error, and given notice of the maker’s default directly to the endorser, Patterson, and thus fixed the latter’s liability; this the defendant in error also failed to do. It is suggested that this failure was on account'of ignorance of the residence or address of Patterson. If this, was true it constitutes ho excuse; for (1.) the defendant in error, in that contingency, not being able to discharge its-duty in any other way than by a notice to the plaintiff in error was bound the more strongly to notify the latter.. And (2.) the means of knowledge were at hand. Fulton, one of the makers of the note, was at the bank, and announced his intention to write to Patterson to obtain an extension of the time of payment.

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Related

Tebbetts & Pearce v. Dowd
23 Wend. 379 (New York Supreme Court, 1840)
Stanton v. Blossom
14 Mass. 116 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1817)
Mense v. Osbern
5 Mo. 544 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1839)
Lewis v. Brehme
33 Md. 412 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 1871)

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Bluebook (online)
49 Ohio St. (N.S.) 351, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bank-v-bank-ohio-1892.