States v. First National Bank of Montrose
| Decision Date | 19 May 1902 |
| Docket Number | 267 |
| Citation | 52 A. 13,203 Pa. 69 |
| Parties | States, Appellant, v. First National Bank of Montrose |
| Court | Pennsylvania Supreme Court |
Argued March 17, 1902
Appeal, No. 267, Jan. T., 1901, by plaintiff, from judgment of Superior Court, Jan. T., 1901, No. 32, reversing judgment of C.P. Susquehanna Co., April T., 1899, No. 182, in case of Jacob States v. First National Bank of Montrose. Affirmed.
Appeal from judgment of the Superior Court. See 17 Pa.Super. 256.
The facts appear by the opinion of the Supreme Court.
Error assigned was judgment of the Superior Court.
A. B Smith, of McCollum & Smith, for appellant. -- It was the duty of the defendant bank to deliver the funds represented by the draft to the payee, or in default, made necessary by the latter's death before its issue, hold the money subject to the order of the plaintiff Jacob States; and the payment to Benjamin Vincent without even his own indorsement and upon the forged indorsement of the name of the payee was contrary to and in violation of the authority from Jacob States and a misfeasance on the part of the defendant bank, and as against Jacob States said payment was a nullity: Seventh National Bank v. Cook, 73 Pa. 483; Saylor v. Bushong, 100 Pa. 27; Girard Bank v. Penn Twp. Bank, 39 Pa 92; Zebley v. Voisin, 7 Pa. 527; Coursin v. Ledlie, 31 Pa. 506; Tradesmen's Nat. Bank v. Third Nat. Bank, 66 Pa. 435.
If it should be held that a creditor directing his debtor to send the amount of his indebtedness by check or draft upon any certain bank, became the owner of the check or draft when the same had been deposited in the mail by the specific direction of the creditor, properly directed, and that the creditor in such case took upon himself the risk and hazard of its transmission; it must be remembered that in this case there was no request as to how Jacob States should pay the money to his sister, Rebecca Vincent, nor was there ever even a suggestion as to how it should be paid; therefore, when Jacob States purchased the draft of the First National Bank of Montrose, he became the owner of it, and transmitted it as he believed to the proper address of his sister without the knowledge or request of anyone, he still retained the ownership of the draft until it was actually received by her if living, or by her legal representatives if dead: Talbot v. Bank of Rochester, 1 Hill (N.Y.), 295; Thomson v. Bank of North America, 82 N.Y. 1.
William D. B. Ainey, for appellee. -- Where through trick or artifice, a check or draft is secured to be drawn to another who is acting under an assumed name, or claiming to be a person whom he is not, and the check or draft is indorsed in the assumed name, and paid, the loss must rest upon him who first gave credence to the artifice, and thus made the fraud possible: Land Title & Trust Co. v. Northwestern Nat. Bank, 196 Pa. 230; United States v. Nat. Exch. Bank, 45 Fed. Repr. 163; Robertson v. Coleman, 4 N.E. Repr. (Mass.) 619; Emporia Nat. Bank v. Shotwell, 35 Kan. 360; Crippen v. Bank, 51 Mo.App. 508; Maloney v. Clark, 6 Kan. 83.
The plaintiff was negligent in directing the defendant bank to make this draft payable to the order of Rebecca Vincent: Iron City Nat. Bank v. Fort Pitt Nat. Bank, 159 Pa. 47.
States was further guilty of negligence in failing to notify the defendant bank for four years after he discovered the forgery: Wolf v. Jacobs, 10 Pa.Super. 59; Rick v. Kelly, 30 Pa. 531; Iron City Nat. Bank v. Fort Pitt Nat. Bank, 159 Pa. 46.
The defendant was guilty of no negligent act: First Nat. Bank v. Shoemaker, 117 Pa. 102; Seventh Nat. Bank v. Cook, 73 Pa. 483; Case v. Morris, 31 Pa. 100; Girard Bank v. Bank of Penn Twp., 39 Pa. 92.
Before MITCHELL, DEAN, BROWN, MESTREZAT and POTTER, JJ.
Jacob States, Sr., the father of plaintiff, died September 21, 1892, and his will was admitted to probate October 7, of the same year. The testator bequeathed $1,000 to his daughter, Rebecca Vincent, to be paid to her by the plaintiff, his executor, within one year after his death. She died June 16, 1892 -- three months before her father -- and, under the statute, the legacy passed to her seven children. After the death of his father, plaintiff received letters purporting to have been written by his sister, of whose death he had no knowledge, the letters having really been written by Maud H. Vincent, a daughter of his deceased sister, at the dictation and under the direction of her father, Benjamin Vincent. The plaintiff supposed he was dealing with his sister, all letters received by him having been signed "Rebecca Vincent" or "Ben and Rebecca to Jacob." These letters and plaintiff's replies to them resulted in a compromise, by the terms of which he was to pay Rebecca Vincent $900 in full payment of the legacy of $1,000. On March 23, 1893, Benjamin Vincent induced his daughter, Maud H., to execute a release to Jacob States, in the name of Rebecca Vincent, for the bequest, and to go before a notary public in Alabama and acknowledge it as the act and deed of Rebecca Vincent. After States received this release, he went to the First National Bank of Montrose on March 30, 1893, and purchased a draft for $900, payable to the order of Rebecca Vincent, on the Chase National Bank of New York, paying $2.25 exchange on the same. The draft was delivered to him and he mailed it to Rebecca Vincent. It was received by Benjamin Vincent, who procured his daughter, Maud H., to indorse it "Mrs. Rebecca Vincent." It was cashed for him by J.B. Trimble & Company, of Montgomery, Alabama, and subsequently sent to the Chase National Bank of New York, where it was paid on April 24, 1893, charged up to the account of the First National Bank of Montrose and sent to that bank, canceled on May 1, 1893. J.B. Trimble & Company failed in business August 10, 1893, and Benjamin Vincent died October 17, 1895. On June 18, 1893, States learned for the first time that his sister had died on June 16, 1892, more than three months before her father, and, in December of the following year, he sent a representative to the state of Illinois to try to secure releases from his sister's children for the amount which their father had so improperly procured from him. In this he was not successful, but nothing was done by the children of Rebecca Vincent until January, 1897, when, in proceedings in the orphans' court of Susquehanna county, they took steps to compel him to pay the amount of the legacy given to their mother, and succeeded in doing so. It nowhere appears that, prior to January, 1897, he gave any notice to the bank of the fraud that had been practiced upon him, and, through him, upon it.
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