Sorrells Bros. Packing Co., Inc. v. Union State Bank

144 So. 2d 74
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedAugust 1, 1962
Docket2845
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 144 So. 2d 74 (Sorrells Bros. Packing Co., Inc. v. Union State Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sorrells Bros. Packing Co., Inc. v. Union State Bank, 144 So. 2d 74 (Fla. Ct. App. 1962).

Opinion

144 So.2d 74 (1962)

SORRELLS BROS. PACKING CO., INC., Appellant,
v.
UNION STATE BANK, a Corporation, Appellee.

No. 2845.

District Court of Appeal of Florida. Second District.

August 1, 1962.
Rehearing Denied September 5, 1962.

E.D. Treadwell, Jr., of Treadwell & Treadwell, Arcadia, for appellant.

*75 William B. Holland, Winter Haven, for appellee.

WILLIS, BEN C., Associate Judge.

The appellant, Sorrells Bros. Packing Co., hereafter called Sorrells, is a Florida corporation against whom the trial court entered a final summary judgment in favor of the appellee Union State Bank, a Texas banking corporation of Carrizo Springs, Texas, hereafter called Union State. The facts pertinent to this appeal do not appear to be in any substantial conflict.

On June 13, 1959, Sorrells issued its check in the sum of $538.00 payable to one H.C. Frazier and drawn on a bank at Arcadia, Florida. On June 22, 1959, the payee H.C. Frazier deposited the check at Union State to the account of Winter Garden Truck Brokerage Co. This was then and had been for some time an active account used by H.C. Frazier and by his brother, W.G. Frazier. When deposited the check bore an indorsement carrying with it the language: "For deposit only. H.C. Frazier. For deposit only in Union State Bank, Carrizo Springs, Texas. Winter Garden Truck Brokerage Co."

The deposit receipt issued by Union State recited:

"In receiving items for deposit or collection, this bank acts only as depositor's collecting agent and assumes no responsibility beyond the exercise of due care. All items are credited subject to final payment in cash or solvent credits. This bank will not be liable for losses in transit, and each correspondent so selected shall not be liable except for its own negligence. This bank or its correspondents may send items directly or indirectly, to any bank including the payor, and accept its draft or credit as conditional payment in lieu of cash; it may charge back any item at any time before final payment, whether returned or not, also any item drawn on this bank not good at close of business on day deposited."

However, Union State almost immediately treated the deposit as a cash item and permitted H.C. Frazier to withdraw the amount of the deposit by a check drawn on it before Sorrells' check could be cleared.

On June 26, 1959, H.C. Frazier sent a telegram to Sorrells requesting that it stop payment on the check it had previously issued to him, describing it by number and amount, and also requesting that a new check be issued and sent to him at a certain box number at Haines City, Florida. Sorrells honored the request, stopping payment on the first check and forwarding a duplicate as specified by Frazier. The duplicate was received by Frazier, presented and cleared in due course.

The check deposited with Union State was duly presented to the Florida bank on which it was drawn, but of course payment was refused and the check was returned to Union State with the notation "payment stopped."

Until the check was returned to it Union State had no notice or knowledge of the request of H.C. Frazier to Sorrells or of any of the other circumstances leading to the "stop payment" order.

Union State contends that it was a holder in due course of the negotiable check and that it is entitled to recover the face amount of same from the maker. It contends that it purchased the paper for value when it treated it as a cash item and allowed the depositor to draw out the amount represented by the deposit of the check. In short, it takes the position that despite the language of the indorsement and of the deposit receipt, which would establish a relationship of principal and agent as between the depositor and the depository bank, the permitted withdrawal of the amount represented by the deposit of the check altered that relationship so that the bank became the owner of the check free of the consequences of any act of the depositor payee of the check. It relies upon Lowrance Motor Co. v. First National Bank of Auburn, C.A. 5, 1957, 238 F.2d 625, 59 *76 A.L.R.2d 1164; and on cases cited and digested in Annotation in 59 A.L.R.2d, pp. 1173-1197, including American Fruit Growers, Inc. v. Chase National Bank, C.C.A. 5, 1929, 30 F.2d 936, applying Florida law.

The trial court held that Union State was a holder in due course and entitled to recover from Sorrells the face amount of the check with interest and costs. The appellant Sorrells predicates its claim for a reversal solely on the rulings pronounced in Johnson v. F.M. Leonard & Co., 1933, 108 Fla. 416, 146 So. 202, and contends that this case is controlling.

We will pause at this time to note that the deposit was made in Texas and the relationships between depositor and depository would be governed by Texas law. However, the case has been briefed and argued here and apparently litigated in the trial court without reference to any special provisions of Texas law. At oral argument before this Court, counsel for the appellee, in response to an inquiry by one of the judges, stated that his research had indicated that both Texas and Florida had the Uniform Negotiable Instruments Law and that the pertinent law of the two states is the same. We have not independently researched the question and will proceed on the premise, apparently conceded by all parties, that the case may be considered as if all transactions and relationships had been governed by the law prevailing in Florida.

In the Johnson case, last cited, the facts are somewhat similar to the case at bar. The liquidator of a defunct bank sued the drawer of a check which had been deposited in the bank by the payee of the check and credited to his account. The check had been indorsed in blank and the deposit slip which was issued set forth that in receiving items for deposit or collection the bank acts only as the depositor's collecting agent and that all items are credited subject to final payment in cash or solvent credits. Thereafter, when presented for payment, the deposited check was dishonored because the drawer, at the request of the drawee, had stopped payment.

After reciting the substance of the facts set forth in the preceding paragraph the Supreme Court of Florida held:

"Our conclusion is that the maker or drawer of the check is not responsible to the bank of deposit under the circumstances above stated, payment of the check having been stopped by the payee before collection was made by the bank of deposit."

Among the authorities cited in support of the foregoing quotation are Edwards v. Lewis, 1929, 98 Fla. 956, 124 So. 746 and Sec. 6834, C.G.L. (now Sec. 674.74, F.S. 1961, F.S.A.[1] In Edwards v. Lewis, supra, the Court observed that prior to the enactment in 1909 of Sec. 6834, C.G.L., it had been held in Brown v. Peoples B. of St. Augustine, 1910, 59 Fla. 163, 52 So. 719, 52 L.R.A., N.S., 608 that where a check payable in another city was indorsed in blank and deposited with a bank to be credited to the depositor, receipt of the check by the bank prima facie carried title to the bank and the relation of debtor and creditor was established between the depositor and the bank by the deposit. However, the Court held that the mentioned statute *77

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144 So. 2d 74, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sorrells-bros-packing-co-inc-v-union-state-bank-fladistctapp-1962.