Dougherty v. Western Bank

13 Ga. 287
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedApril 15, 1853
DocketNo. 39
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 13 Ga. 287 (Dougherty v. Western Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dougherty v. Western Bank, 13 Ga. 287 (Ga. 1853).

Opinion

By the Court.

Nisbet, J.

delivering the opinion.

[1.] The action was brought against'the Western Bank of Georgia, upon sundry notes or bills of that bank; and upon the trial, the plaintiff tendered in evidence two of these bills, one of which was payable generally on demand, and the .other on demand at Rome. Both of them were barred upon their face by the Statute of Limitations. To their going in evidence, it was objected, first, that there was no allegation of demand of payment in the declaration, and no proof of the same. The Court sustained the objection, and the plaintiff excepted. The defendant in error holds that by the Common Law, the maker o'f a promissory note, and the acceptor of a bill of exchange payable generally on demand, or on demand at a designated time and place, are not liable but upon demand, and that allegation and proof of demand, are conditions precedent to recovery. He also holds, that bank bills are governed^ by the rule which applies to promissory notes and acceptances. Leaving the identity of bank bills in legal character with promissory notes and acceptances, so far as this question is concerned, out of view for the present, I proceed to inquire whether, in our Courts, it is necessary to aver and prove a demand in order to charge the maker of a promissory note, or the acceptor of a bill of exchange^ when the note or bill is payable generally on demand at a specified time and place. I assume what is not controvertible, that the liability of an acceptor is the same with that of the maker of a note. ’ One of the bank bills in this case, is payable generally on de[290]*290mand. What then, I inquire, first, is the rule as to the maker of a note payable generally on demand ? It is that no demand is necessary for any purpose, other than that which is made by the action. The law deems a note of this sort, to admit a present debt to be due to the payee, payable at all events, whenever and by whomsoever presented for payment, according to its purport. If a note be payable at sight, or at ten days after sight, or in ten days after notice, or on request, or on demand; in all these and the like cases, the note will be held valid and payable at all events, although the payee may die without having presented the note for sight, or without having given any notice to, or made any request or demand upon the maker for payment. I do not understand that at the Common Law, as administered in Great Britain and the United States, there is any contrariety of opinion or conflict of decision, relative to the doctrine thus stated, on this branch of the case. So far then, as concerns the bank note payable generally, upon Common Law principles, or to speak more accurately, upon the principles of the law merchant, the Court erred in excluding it because demand was not averred and proven. Story on Prom. Notes, §29. Chitty on Bills, 156, (8th edition.) Dixon vs. Nuttall, 1 Cromp. Mees. and Rose, 307. S. C. 6. Car. and Payne R. 320. 4 Tyrwh. R. 1013. Clayton vs. Gosling, 5 Barn, and Cress. 360. Rumball vs. Ball, 10 Mod. 38. Bayley on Bills, 402, (5th edition.) Chitty on Bills, 590, (8th edition.) Ibid, 608, 609.

[2.] A different rule obtains in the case of a note payable on demand at a designated place ; the case of the other bank bill offered in evidence here. As late as the year 1820, the law as to the liability of the maker of a promissory note, or of tho acceptor of a bill, thus payable, was without controversy unsettled. In the great case of Rowe vs. Young, upon appeal to the House of Lords, in the year 1820, reported in 2 Brod. & Bing. 165, 6 Eng. C. L. Reps. 83; it was settled. In that case, the King’s Bench had ruled, that in an action against an acceptor in favor of an indorsee, payable two [291]*291months after date, at Sir John Penings & Co. bankers, London, an averment of demand of payment at the house of Sir John Penings & Co. two months after date of the bill, was not necessary to charge the acceptor, and need not be averred. The House of Lords reversed the judgment. Eight of the twelve Judges were for affirming the judgment of the King’s Bench, and four for reversing it. Among the latter, were found two of the greatest names of English judicial history ; Eldon and Redesdale. Lord Eldon, in his opinion to the Lords, admitted that up to that time, the law of the case was not to be considered as settled. He says, “ that the Court of the King’s Bench has been of late years in the habit of holding such an acceptance as this to be a general acceptance, with what the Judges of that Court call an expansion, or direction, or an engagement which introduces not a qualified promise, but a sort of courtesy — a kind of accommodation between the parties — in addition to the effect of the general acceptance; to which accommodation or courtesy, however, they hold, that the holder of the bill is not at all bound to attend.” He also says, “ on the other hand, the Court of Common Pleas is in the habit of holding that such an acceptance as this, is a qualified acceptance, and that the contract of the party is to pay at the bankers, and of holding it as a matter of pleading that presentment at the place stipulated must be averred, and that evidence must be given to sustain the averment.” Upon the authority of this case, it seems that the King’s Bench had made a distinction between a promissory note payable at a particular place, and an acceptance payable át a particular place, upon the ground th,at the stipulation of payment at a particular place in case of a note, being in the body of the note, is a part of the contract. In the case of a' bill, the stipulation to pay at a particular place, being in the acceptance and not in the body of the bill, that Court held, that it was not a part of the contract. Whilst therefore, they held that in the case of the acceptance, the demand was not necessary, yet in the case of the note it was necessary. Lord Eldon gives to this distinction the benefit of his annihilating doubt. These state[292]*292ments, derived from the case of Rowe and Young, sufficiently exhibit the state of the law in 1820. It is very manifest that in the Courts of Great Britain at that time, it Avas unsettled. No uniform rule up to that time had obtained. That none had obtained is also manifest by a careful review of the previous cases.'" The Lords, constituting the highest tribunal, settled a rule, and that was, that Avhen an acceptor is sued upon a bill payable at a particular time and place, demand at the place must be averred and proven, the place stipulated being a part of the contract. Whilst the eight Judges and the King’s Bench, denied this to be the rule of pleading and of proof on the part of the plaintiff, yet they held that the stipulation to pay at a place designated, Avas for the benefit of the maker and acceptor, and that they, to avail themselves of the advantage of a failure to present, must plead and proArc that they AYere Ayith means ready to pay, and that such place and proof AYOuld protect them from all costs and damages. Their doctrine was, that the note or acceptance AYas an undertaking to pay at all events, and that the stipulation to pay at a designated place, was for the convenience of the maker and acceptor, to be complied Avith by the holder at the peril of a loss of costs and damages, if upon plea it Avas made to appear that the defendant Avas ready at the place to meet his engagement.

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Bluebook (online)
13 Ga. 287, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dougherty-v-western-bank-ga-1853.