Mackintosh v. Eliot Nat'l Bank

• Decision Date: 22 November 1877
• Citation: 123 Mass. 393
• Parties: James Mackintosh v. Eliot National Bank
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

123 Mass. 393

James Mackintosh v. Eliot National Bank

Supreme Court of Massachusetts

November 22, 1877

Suffolk. Contract to recover $ 1706. 87 deposited with the defendant and standing to the credit of Seaman & Co.

At the trial in the Superior Court, before Putnam, J., it appeared in evidence that the plaintiff carried on business under the name of Seaman & Co.; that three checks for $ 850, $ 658.50 and $ 198.37 respectively, purporting to be signed by Seaman & Co., were paid by the defendant, the signatures of all of which were admitted to be forgeries; that the defendant contended it was not liable, because it was through the fault of the plaintiff induced to pay the checks; that the plaintiff had in his employ one Hall, by whom it was agreed that the forgeries were committed; that the check for $ 850, which was stamped with the hand stamp of the firm, was paid by the defendant to Hall; and that the checks for $ 658.50 and $ 198.37, the first of which was also stamped with the hand stamp of the firm, were delivered by Hall to Worster & Babson in payment for gold purchased, were indorsed and deposited by them, and paid by the defendant through the clearing-house.

Francis Harrington, the paying teller of the defendant bank testified that the plaintiff brought Hall to him, and introduced him to him some months before these checks were paid as a proper person to pay money to on the plaintiff's checks, and said that he would do the business at the bank; that, after this introduction, Hall came to the bank with checks of Seaman & Co., and received the money on them; that he paid to Hall the check for $ 850; that the other two came through the clearing-house, and he paid the money on them; that the two larger checks had stamps on them; that he had very frequently seen a similar impress on the genuine checks; that he had paid checks signed Seaman & Co., and payable to Hall's own order, which Hall had indorsed in his presence, at the time of payment; that Hall had frequently brought in checks, which were filled in with his own handwriting in the body of them; that the check for $ 850 was presented by Hall as agent of Seaman & Co.; that it was filled in, in the body of it, with the handwriting of Hall that it bore the stamp of Seaman & Co.; that that had some effect on him in inducing him to pay it, though he should have paid it, without that, on the strength of the introduction; that the check for $ 658.50 had the indorsement of Worster & Babson, and had the stamp, and those facts...