Cable & Wireless, Ltd. v. Yokohama Specie Bank, Ltd.

191 Misc. 567, 79 N.Y.S.2d 597, 1948 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2441
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 24, 1948
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 191 Misc. 567 (Cable & Wireless, Ltd. v. Yokohama Specie Bank, Ltd.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cable & Wireless, Ltd. v. Yokohama Specie Bank, Ltd., 191 Misc. 567, 79 N.Y.S.2d 597, 1948 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2441 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1948).

Opinion

Walter, J.

On or about September 29, 1941, Yokohama Specie Bank, Limited, a Japanese corporation having an agency in New York, drew, at Tokyo, a bill of exchange addressed to itself in New York whereby it directed its New York agency to pay to the order of The Chairman, Cable & Wireless, Ltd., $101,386.89 on demand. The draft was sent by mail to plaintiff, a British corporation, in England and was indorsed by plaintiff’s chairman, and plaintiff is the holder thereof.

On December 8,1941, before the draft was presented for payment, the Superintendent of Banks of the State of New York took possession of the business and property of Yokohama Specie Bank,- Limited, in New York for the purpose of liquidating the same, and since then has been and now is in possession thereof and engaged in such liquidation.

Plaintiff duly made proof of its claim on said draft and presented the same to the superintendent. The superintendent rejected the claim, and plaintiff brings this action to recover thereon.

Under the Banking Law of New York plaintiff is not entitled to payment out of the New York assets in the hands of the superintendent unless it proves (1) that its claim as a creditor of Yokohama Specie Bank, Limited, arises out of transactions had by it with the bank’s New York agency, or (2) that its, name appears as a creditor on the books of such agency (Banking Law, § 606, subd. 4; Orvis v. Bell, 294 N. Y. 844).

When the draft was issued plaintiff owned.and operated international cables, telegraph lines and wireless telegraph circuits, and the draft was issued in settlement of traffic receipts on the London-Osaka wireless circuit due plaintiff from the Japanese Telegraph Administration. Under international conventions regulating international communications carriers plaintiff was entitled to demand payment in United States dollars aiid the practice long had been for Japan to pay plaintiff by means of drafts drawn on and paid by the New York agency of Yokohama Specie Bank, Limited. But the draft here in suit was not paid and it was not presented in New York for payment until after I the superintendent had taken possession, and I cannot see in I those conventions or in that past practice, or in anything else in the evidence, anything which shows that plaintiff’s claim arises out of transactions had by it with the New York agency, even [570]*570under the somewhat liberal rule on that point adopted in Singer v. Yokohama Specie Bank (293 N. Y. 542).

Of course, if that case be in truth an adoption of the broad view1 that a clearly manifested mutual intent that the creditor be paid dollars out of the bank’s New York funds is sufficient to show that such creditor’s claim arises out of transactions had within the New York agency, as plaintiff here argues ‘that it is, I undoubtedly would have to hold that plaintiff’s claim so arises, for there can be no doubt that both parties in fact intended that plaintiff be paid dollars out of the bank’s New York funds. But I discover nothing in the Singer case {supra), which leads me to believe that the court there intended to adopt that broad view.

The controlling question in this case thus is whether or not plaintiff’s name appears as a creditor oh the books of the New York agency.

Advice of the issuance of the draft was given by the Bank in Japan to the New York agency, not by a mere letter but by the much more formal way of sending such advice on a printed form on a fairly large sized sheet of paper having holes punched in one side or end of it to facilitate binding. This advice sheet bears the printed heading:

“The Yokohama Specie Bank, Limited Tokyo Branch Advice of drafts sold on (Bank of Japan Kokko Account) ”

Under that heading there are columns formed by vertical lines printed in red ink, at the tops of which there are the printed headings:

On the sheet relating to the draft in suit, the initials N. Y. were written in ink after the words sold on ”, so that the heading reads, Advice of drafts sold on N, Y.”, and under the column headings there appear:

[571]*571under Date of Issue: Sept. 29, 1941

under No. K: 3377

under Payee: The Chairman, Cable & Wireless, Ltd.

under Bills Amounts: $101,386.89

under Bate: 23 7/16

under Yen Amount: 432,584.06

The sheet is also stamped “ Beceived New York, Nov. 3, 1941 ”.

The sheet is bound, along with a number of other similar sheets, between heavy cardboard covers fastened together with brass brads which, although easily removable, nevertheless hold the sheets and the cardboard covers together in such a way as to give them the appearance of a book; and on the outside of one of the covers there is pasted a label upon which there is written:

“ Tokio K a/c B/P advice sheets ”

Advice sheets of this sort were the regular, customary way of advising the New York agency of the issuance of drafts which that agency would be called upon to pay. They were sent for the very purpose of giving such advice. They were intended as records of what drafts drawn by the bank upon the New York agency were outstanding, and they were permanent at least in the sense and to the extent of being preserved until their function of serving as a record of such drafts as were outstanding had been performed.

Counsel for the superintendent questions whether the sheet relating to the draft in suit was physically in the binder prior to the time the superintendent took possession. There is no evidence, however, that it was put in the binder after he took possession, and for such materiality as the fact may have I think the evidence preponderates in favor of the view that that sheet was put in the binder when received and that it remained there.

Proof that the binder was found by the superintendent when he took possession and that he regarded it as a book of the agency is found in the fact, among other things, that the label on its front cover to which I have referred above was pasted on the cover by one of his employees after he took possession.

That binder is a book of the New York agency. Plaintiff’s name appears thereon as payee of a draft drawn by the bank upon-itself (for obviously there never was any thought of making the draft payable to plaintiff’s chairman individually, and plaintiff is as clearly the payee as if the word ** Chairman ” had not been written in the draft). If, therefore, the payee of a draft drawn by a bank upon itself is a creditor of the drawer (a point [572]*572I will later discuss), then it is to my mind too clear for dispute that plaintiff’s name appears as a creditor on the books of the New York agency.

Nevertheless, without directly denying that the binder is a book of the New York agency, or that plaintiff’s name appears thereon, or that the payee of a draft drawn by a bank upon itself is a creditor of the drawer (at least until he parts with ownership of the draft), counsel for the superintendent earnestly and persistently contends that, it is clear that plaintiff’s name does not appear as a creditor upon the books of the New York agency.

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191 Misc. 567, 79 N.Y.S.2d 597, 1948 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2441, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cable-wireless-ltd-v-yokohama-specie-bank-ltd-nysupct-1948.