White v. Wadhams

170 N.W. 60, 204 Mich. 381, 1918 Mich. LEXIS 689
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 27, 1918
DocketDocket No. 34
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 170 N.W. 60 (White v. Wadhams) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
White v. Wadhams, 170 N.W. 60, 204 Mich. 381, 1918 Mich. LEXIS 689 (Mich. 1918).

Opinion

Kuhn, J.

Plaintiff filed his bill to secure an accounting of a farm partnership existing during the summer of 1916 between himself and the defendant Frederick N. Wadhams. The plaintiff prevailed, and the decree provides that the defendant Wadhams owes the plaintiff $492.24 and interest, and, in addition, [383]*383plaintiff was given an attorney fee of $75, payable out of the partnership funds. The findings and the decree both state that a certificate of deposit was issued to the order of the defendant Wadhams, December 18, 1916, by the defendant Hastings City Bank for $950 and that this fund was the sole avails of the partnership after the debts had been paid. On December 23, 1916, an injunction was issued and served on the Hastings City Bank and on the defendant Wad-hams, inhibiting the latter from transferring the certificate or drawing the money and the bank from paying out the money. This injunction has been respected by the Hastings City Bank, but Wadhams transferred the certificate to his sister, Ida E. Wadhams, who, on December 3, 1917, presented it for payment at the State Savings Bank of Ann Arbor, then known as the State and German American Savings Bank, which bank cashed it, paying therefor its full face value, partly in credit on a liberty bond, partly in cash, and partly in a certificate of .deposit for $700, issued by the State Savings Bank, payable to the order of Clara E. Straith, the sister of Ida E. Wadhams. On December 15, 1917, while the hearing was in progress, the Ann Arbor bank filed its petition asking that it be allowed to intervene, on the ground that it was a good-faith purchaser of the $950 certificate, and an order was made permitting it to intervene, and it filed its answer. The $700 certificate issued by the State Savings Bank was presented on December 7, 1917, to the First National Bank of Ypsilanti, which bank paid it in currency and then mailed it to the Ann Arbor bank for credit to its account at the Ann Arbor bank. According to the testimony of the cashier of the Ann Arbor bank, the certificate was received by the Ann Arbor bank on the morning of December 8th and was credited up to the account of the Ypsilanti bank, and about an hour after this was done, Walz, the cashier, [384]*384was called up by the assistant cashier of the Peninsular State Bank of Detroit, which bank is the correspondent of the Ann Arbor bank, and through which bank the Ann Arbor bank had sought to clear the Hastings bank certificate, and was informed that the $950 certificate had been protested by the Hastings bank on December 5th. It appears that the Ypsilanti bank, however, did not check out the money, that is, the $700, until after Mr. Walz had received this information from the Detroit bank. The certificate of deposit in question reads as follows:

“Hastings City Bank
“Hastings, Mich., Dec. 18, 1916.
“F. N. Wadhams has deposited in this bank nine hundred fifty dollars, $950.00, payable to the order of self, upon the return of this certificate, properly endorsed, with interest at 2 per cent, per annum if left six months.
“Subject to the rules of the savings department.
“No interest for fractional part of one month.
“Interést to cease one year.from date, unless renewed.
“A. A. Anderson,
“Cashier,
“C.”

It will be noticed that it was presented for payment at the Ann Arbor bank on December 3, 1917, more than 11% months after its date. The decree provides that the Ann Arbor bank was not a good-faith purchaser and did not get the Hastings certificate in due course, not having taken it within a reasonably short time of its issue, and directs the Hastings bank to pay to the plaintiff the amount of the decree and costs. It further directs the bank to turn over the balance of the $950 certificate to the court, same to be subject to the further order of the court after the rights of the parties in interest shall have been determined. The intervening defendant, the State Savings Bank of Ann Arbor, appeals.

[385]*385As stated by counsel for appellant in their brief, there are two questions presented on this appeal:

(1) Was the certificate of deposit for $950 a nego tiable instrument?

(2) Was the State Savings Bank a holder in due course?

1. The negotiable instruments law provides that an instrument is negotiable which conforms to the following requirements (2 Comp. Laws 1915, § 6042) :

“First. It must be in writing and signed by the maker or drawer;
“Second. It must contain an unconditional promise or order to pay a certain sum of money;
“Third. It must be payable on demand or at a fixed or determinable future time;
“Fourth. It must be payable to order or to bearer; and
“Fifth. Where the instrument is addressed to a drawee, he must be named or otherwise indicated therein with reasonable certainty.”

The first requisite is present, and no question is raised in regard to it, and likewise the fourth and fifth requisites are not involved or questioned in this appeal. The second requirement, however, is questioned by the plaintiff, who claims that the certificate of deposit is conditional in three respects, viz., that it was payable out of a particular fund; that it is conditional, because subject to the rules of the savings department; and that the amount is uncertain, because of the provision as to interest.

With reference to the claim that the certificate of deposit was payable out of a particular fund and therefore conditional, it is argued that because the certificate of deposit is carried in the savings department of the bank and subject to its rules, it is merely a charge on a particular fund, and therefore conditional. We are not impressed that there is any merit to this [386]*386contention. While it is true that under our law the banks divide their business into savings and commercial departments, nevertheless the certificate of deposit was issued by the bank and thus became the obligation of the bank and not of its savings department. The negotiable instruments law provides (2 Comp. Laws 1915, § 6044) :

“An unqualified order or promise to pay is unconditional within the meaning of this act, though coupled with:
“First. An indication of a particular fund out of which reimbursement is to be made, or a particular account to be debited with the amount.” * * *

The rule applicable to this situation is thus stated in 8 Corpus Juris, p. 123:

" “The true test in every case is, Does the instrument carry the general personal credit of the drawer or the maker, or only the credit of a particular fund?”

In the situation here presented, we are clearly of the opinion that the certificate of deposit, as we have said, carried the credit of the Hastings City Bank, and not merely that of its savings department.

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Bluebook (online)
170 N.W. 60, 204 Mich. 381, 1918 Mich. LEXIS 689, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/white-v-wadhams-mich-1918.