Kavanaugh v. Farmers' Bank of Maitland

59 Mo. App. 540, 1894 Mo. App. LEXIS 479
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 3, 1894
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 59 Mo. App. 540 (Kavanaugh v. Farmers' Bank of Maitland) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kavanaugh v. Farmers' Bank of Maitland, 59 Mo. App. 540, 1894 Mo. App. LEXIS 479 (Mo. Ct. App. 1894).

Opinion

Smith, P. J.

The defendant, the Bank of Maitland, was a corporation duly organized and doing business in the town of Maitland, in this state. Plaintiff, James A. Kavanaugh, was a farmer living a few miles from said town of Maitland, and was a regular customer and depositor of said defendant bank, and had had dealings and an account therewith since the year 1881, and was reliable and financially responsible. The defendant bank provided said plaintiff as such customer and depositor, as it did all its patrons and depositors, with a bank pass book in which the account between him and said bank was kept, and which showed all deposits made by plaintiff, and credits given him, as well as all checks drawn by him, and paid by said bank out of his funds and deposits. The bank at the time of said transaction with plaintiff by its officers made and kept all the entries therein.

One J. C. Swartz, about the twenty-first day of May, 1891, purchased of plaintiff some stock and paid for the same with a check, of which the following is a copy:

[544]*544Savannah, May 21, 1891. No.“State Bank of Savannah:

“Pay to J. A. Kavanaugh, or bearer, $92.50, ninety-two, 50-100 dollars.

“J. C. Swaetz.”

Plaintiff indorsed said check in blank by writing his name, “J. A. Kavanaugh,” across the backthereof and sent the same with his bank pass book to the Maitland bank by one of his neighbors.' The bank balanced the account after crediting the said check as a cash deposit, on the same day, May 22, 1891, and showed thereon a balance in favor of plaintiff of $101.81.

On the thirtieth day of April, after the balancing of said account as shown by said pass book, plaintiff drew his check on the bank of Maitland, payable to the Citizens’ Bank of Graham, for $192.76, the amount of said balance. The drawee bank in regular course of business caused the check to be presented for payment to the Bank of Maitland, and payment thereof was refused, and the check was duly protested for nonpayment, and same was returned to plaintiff, which he received, paying $2.45 protest fees. On the seventh day of May, 1892, the plaintiff made formal demand upon the defendant Bank of Maitland, for payment of said balance of $192.76 due, with the $2.45 protest fees by him paid.

At the time the defendant bank received the Swartz check on May 22, 1891, indorsed in blank, and gave credit therefor, to plaintiff payee thereof, the the defendant bank made the following indorsement across the back thereof, “pay State National Bank of St. Joseph, Missouri, or order, for collection account of Farmers’ Bank, Maitland, Missouri,” and transmitted same by mail in due course, to the State National Bank, its regular correspondent. On the next day, [545]*545twenty-third, about 11 o’clock A. m., the check was cleared through the clearing house of St. Joseph, Missouri, by the following indorsement across the back thereof, “State National Bank Clearing House, St. Joseph, Missouri, May 23,1891,” and the same was delivered to the Schuster-Hax National Bank of St. Joseph, Missouri, which was the regular correspondent of the State Bank of Savannah, on which J. C. Swartz’ check was drawn in favor of plaintiff Kavanaugh.

The said Schuster-Hax National Bank, on the evening of the same day, May 23, 1891, made the following indorsement on the check: “For collection and credit account, the Schuster-Hax National Bank, St. Joseph, Missouri, S. A. Walker, cashier,” and transmitted same, with other remittances to the drawee, State Bank of Savannah. It seems the letter transmitting said remittances never reached said State Bank of Savannah, and the check was never presented to, or collected of, said Savannah Bank or in any way charged therein against the drawer, Swartz. About the first day of June, 1891, it was learned, upon inquiry by the Schuster-Hax National Bank, that the check and other remittances had never reached said State Bank of Savannah, and notice of the fact was duly given to the respective banks owning, transmitting and collecting the check, and requests were successfully made for the procuring a duplicate of the check, and about the ninth of June, 1891, defendant bank informed plaintiff of the loss, and requested him to procure a duplicate of Swartz. Plaintiff and the banks, including the Savannah Bank, wrote letters to Swartz requesting such duplicate, but no response or duplicate came to any of them. It further appears that said Swartz was a regular customer and depositor of said State Bank [546]*546of Savannah, and had funds deposited therein to pay all his cheeks, and that said check of $92.50, so drawn to plaintiff would have been honored and paid by said State Bank of Savannah at any time after it was drawn, until the nineteenth day of June, 1891. It further appears that the said State Bank of Savannah informed the Schuster-Hax National Bank at the time the loss of the check was ascertained, that said Swartz had such funds on deposit, sufficient to pay said lost check.

Neither the Farmers’ Bank of Maitland, the State NationalBank, nor Schuster-Hax National Bank, at any time, presented said check, or a copy thereof, or any affidavit of loss, or offered any indemnity to said State Bank of Savannah, and never demanded payment, nor took any steps whatever to secure payment of said check, or to have said bank retain and hold any part of Swartz’s funds, or to protest said check or copy thereof, for nonpayment, but, on the contrary, relied solely, for eleven months, on the bare possibility of obtaining a duplicate check from said Swartz, and even after Swartz had withdrawn and exhausted all his funds on deposit with said State Bank of Savannah, no effort was made to collect the amount of the check off of Schwartz, the drawer, or to furnish any proof of loss of the check.

About the month of March or April, 1892, the Schuster-Hax National Bank demanded of the State National Bank that it refund them the amount of the check, and it paid the same without objection, andin the same month of April, 1892, the Farmers’ Bank of Maitland, on demand, paid the amount to said State National Bank, and on the thirtieth day of April demanded payment of said amount of plaintiff Kavanaugh, and upon his refusal to pay, charged it back to him on the books of the bank, and against the balance due him, and notified plaintiff of the fact by letter accompanied with a [547]*547copy of said check. The plaintiff instituted this action before a justice of the peace to recover the sum of $192.76 amount of the balance claimed by him together with $2.75 protest fees paid by him as already stated. The case was removed by appeal to the circuit court, where plaintiff had judgment, and the defendant appealed.

The instrument, which has already been set out, was an order drawn upon a bank for the payment of a sum certain to the plaintiff and was payable instantly on demand. In legal effect it purported to be drawn on funds of the maker in the bank and therefore it was a check. Daniel on Neg. Instrs. [3 Ed.], sec. 1556; Morse on Banking [2 Ed.], 164; State v. Vincent, 91 Mo. 662. It was payable to plaintiff “or bearér” and under the law as now settled in this state was negotiable and subject to the same principles which govern ordinary bills of exchange in respect to the rights of the, holder. Burns v. Kahn, 47 Mo. App. 216; Famous Shoe Co. v. Crosswith, 27 S. W. Rep. 397; Daniel on Neg. Instrs. [4 Ed.], 1651, 1652; Tiedeman on Com. Paper, sec. 440.

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Bluebook (online)
59 Mo. App. 540, 1894 Mo. App. LEXIS 479, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kavanaugh-v-farmers-bank-of-maitland-moctapp-1894.