Williamsport Gas Co. v. Pinkerton

• Decision Date: 14 June 1880
• Parties: Williamsport Gas Company <I>versus</I> Pinkerton.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Page 62

95 Pa. 62

Williamsport Gas Company versus Pinkerton.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

June 2, 1880.

June 14, 1880.

June 2d 1880.

Before SHARSWOOD, C. J., MERCUR, GORDON, TRUNKEY, STERRETT and GREEN, JJ. PAXSON, J, absent

Error to the Court of Common Pleas of Lycoming county: Of May Term 1880, No. 145.

Bentley & Parker, for plaintiff in error.—Coupons payable at a particular time and place are like notes payable at a specified bank: Philadelphia & Baltimore Central Railroad Co. v. Johnson, 4 P. F. Smith 130. From its terms a coupon is a draft upon a particular fund, and in so far it is simply a check, but it is payable at a fixed future date, hence it is analogous to a check in form, payable in futuro, which has been construed to be a note. The analogy between an interest coupon, then, and a check, note or bill being so close; in other words, since the coupon has all the incidents of commercial securities, the same degree of vigilance is imposed upon its holder as is imposed upon the holder of a note or check. It is well settled here and in England that if the maker or drawer provide the funds at the time and place designated to pay his check, note or bill, he is discharged if, through unreasonable delay in presenting the same by the holder, loss occurs by the failure of the bank: Edwards on Bills 396; Conroy v. Warren, 2 Am. Dec. 159; 2 Phila. Rep. 111. The bank was not the agent of the company.

H. C. Parsons and Charles K. Geddes, for defendant in error.— Coupons differ materially from commercial paper. They are secured by mortgage; are under seal. In an action to recover upon other forms of commercial paper, either assumpsit or debt may be brought; in an action upon these bonds, debt alone can be sustained. An action upon other commercial paper is barred by delay after six years; while upon the bonds it is not barred until twenty years after maturity. The coupons differ from other commercial paper in precisely the same respects in which the bonds themselves differ, because they are incidental to and form part of the bonds: City v. Lamson, 9 Wallace 477; City v. Butler, 14 Id. 282.

The judgment of the Supreme Court was entered June 14th 1880, PER CURIAM.

The corporation which issues a coupon bond is in the position of a maker of a promissory note, not of the drawer of a check or bill of exchange. There is no obligation on the holder to present and demand it within a reasonable time. The same rule applies to the coupons as to the bond....