Landa v. Traders Bank

94 S.W. 770, 118 Mo. App. 356, 1906 Mo. App. LEXIS 316
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 2, 1906
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 94 S.W. 770 (Landa v. Traders Bank) 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
Landa v. Traders Bank, 94 S.W. 770, 118 Mo. App. 356, 1906 Mo. App. LEXIS 316 (Mo. Ct. App. 1906).

Opinion

BROADDUS, P. J. —

This suit is to recover from defendant the face value, of a certain draft on his customer in Chicago for the price of a quanity of meal. The draft-was drawn in the name of R. J. House & Co., but it is agreed that said company and plaintiff are one and the same.

The draft, accompained by a bill of lading for the meal, was placed in the hands of defendant bank, doing business at Kansas City, Missouri, for collection, which for a consideration agreed to collect the same. The latter in the usual course of business sent the draft with the bill of lading to its correspondent, the American Trust and Savings Bank at Chicago, with instructions to collect the same. The said draft was drawn upon the United States Brewing Company of Chicago-. On the 30th day of April, 1903, the defendant received from its Chicago correspondent through the mail a communication informing it that its correspondent had collected the amount of the said draft and had credited the same to the defendant’s account, which it- kept with its said correspondent. Upon receiving said communication, and on the same day, defendant credited the amount of the draft, less charges for collection, to the plaintiff in his deposit account. After said credit had been made and on the same day, the defendant received from its Chicago correspondent a telegram informing defendant that its previous communication, which had advised defendant that the draft had been paid, was a mistake and that the same had not been paid, and that the amount which had been so credited to the defendant by its said correspondent had been charged back to defendant by its said correspondent, of which defendant immediately informed the plaintiff. The defendant then charged back to the plaintiff in his deposit account the amount of said draft, which had been credited to him as aforesaid.

The plaintiff was a grain dealer doing his banking business with defendant, where he kept his deposits. His [362]*362arrangement with defendant was that by which the latter was to collect his drafts for a compensation of ten cents on the one hundred dollars. It was not the habit, when plaintiff deposited his drafts with the defendant for collection, to credit him with them as cash, but they were listed by the teller in a separate book belonging to plaintiff. After collection, the drafts were credited to plaintiff’s account and entered upon his pass-book as cash deposits. The draft in question was deposited with defendant for collection and entered upon plaintiff’s collection book.

It was shown that defendant bank kept with the Chicago bank large deposits, upon which it drew daily, and that all items received by defendant for collection were sent to that bank. It was the custom of the latter, when it made such collections to place the proceeds to the credit of defendant. The defendant was in turn collector for the Chicago bank and, when collections were made, the defendant credited them to said Chicago bank and remitted them to the latter every ten days.

The Chicago bank presented the check in question to the drawee,, the United States Brewing Company, who gave the bank its check for the full amount of the draft on the First National Bank of Chicago, whereupon it stamped the draft paid and delivered it, with the bill of lading, to the drawee. The check was returned on the next day through the clearing house marked “Payment Stopped.” The First National Bank of Chicago refused payment of the check in pursuance of an order from the drawer, the said Brewing Company, and it is still unpaid. The check was not paid on account of a dispute as to the quality of the meal covered by the bill of lading. The Chicago bank endorsed the check to defendant and tendered it to plaintiff, who refused to accept it.

There was evidence of a uniform custom in Kansas City, under which, whenever a bank of Kansas City received for collection a paper in another city and it has [363]*363in such other city a correspondent bank, with which it keeps a balance and a running account, the Kansas City bank transmits the paper to such, correspondent, and the amount of the paper, when collected by the latter, instead of being remitted to the Kansas City bank, is placed to the credit of the latter in its running account by the bank making the collection. Of this custom plaintiff testified he had no knowledge. It was also shown to be the usage of banks in Kansas City and elsewhere that when a depositor receives credit for an item, supposed at the time to be good as cash, but which afterwards proves not to be so, to charge back the amount to the depositor in his account. On the cover of plaintiff’s pass book was printed the following: “All items received by this bank for credit'or collection are taken at the depositor’s risk. This bank, as agent for the depositor, will forward items not payable in Kansas City, to collection agents, who have been carefully selected. This bank, however, assumes no responsibility for neglect or default of these agents, and should they convert the proceeds of items sent them, or their returns be dishonored, the amount will be charged to the depositor, and, if possible, the dishonored paper delivered to them. All checks and drafts are credited subject to payment.” The plaintiff was permitted to testify that he had no knowledge of a custom of the Kansas City banks and banks in other cities with whom they had correspondence, to send to their correspondents and get credit for collections in the foreign bank. The defendant objected to the evidence on the ground that the custom was binding on plaintiff whether he had knowledge of it or not.

The action is for money had and received; the theory of plaintiff being that defendant collected the money and failed to account for the same. The defendant contends that there was not only a variance between the allegata, and probata, but an entire absence of proof. The solution of the question depends on whether, the receipt by [364]*364the Chicago hank of the check, the surrender of the draft and bill of lading, was a payment.

The first question raised is, that the defendant is not liable for any mistake or neglect of the Chicago bank in dealing with the draft. “Where a bank in this State receives for collection a draft payable in another State and uses due diligence and forwards the draft to a proper correspondent at the place where the paper is made payable, with proper instructions for collection, its responsibility is at an end, and in case of default by its correspondent, it cannot be held liable to the owner, unless by some act it makes itself responsible.” [Daly v. Bank, 56 Mo. 94.] And it was held in Bank v. Bank, 71 Mo. App. 451: “'If a bank receives a paper for collection on a party in a. distant place, the agent it employs is the agent of the owner and of the bank; and, if the bank selects a competent and reliable agent and gives proper instructions, its responsibility ceases.” [Guelich v. Bank, 56 Iowa 434.] This is admitted to be the law.

But plaintiff insists that the rule does not apply to the case at bar. That here, the draft was taken not merely for transmission to another agent for collection, but under an agreement by defendant to collect the same for an agreed consideration, which made defendant plaintiff’s agent. And furthermore, the usage of the defendant and the Chicago' bank, that collections made by the latter for the former were to be treated as deposits to be credited to the defendant, made the Chicago bank its agent. The question was before the House of Lords in Mackersy v. Ramsays, 9 Clark & Finnelly’s Rep. 818.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
94 S.W. 770, 118 Mo. App. 356, 1906 Mo. App. LEXIS 316, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/landa-v-traders-bank-moctapp-1906.