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75 Ark. 556

Sharp v. Fleming

Supreme Court of Arkansas

Decided May 27, 1905

Supreme Court of Arkansas · decided 1905-05-27

James'S. Steel, Judge. statement by the court. S. C. Sharp & Company, a firm composed of appellant, S. C. Sharp, and one Manning, were indebted to appellee in the sum of $390 on account for goods, wares and merchandise sold to them, and on January 22, 1902, gave appellee their check on the Howard County Bank, of Nashville, Ark., for that amount in payment of the debt.

Relies on Henry v. Conley · De Yampert v. Brown

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Affirmed · Decided 1905-05-27

How this case has been cited

Cited by 13 later decisions — most recently November 1991

2 district · 9 state decisions

601905191019201930194019501960197019801990decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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McCulloch, J.,

¶1(after stating the facts.) Appellant has no just cause of complaint at the instructions of the court. They were quite as favorable to his defense as he was entitled to

¶2According to the undisputed facts appellee was entitled to a verdict against appellant for the amount of the debt.

¶3Giving the check, which was never paid, was not an extinguishment of the original debt, unless shown to have been accepted absolutely in payment. DeYampert v. Brown, 28 Ark. 166; Henry v. Conley, 48 Ark. 267.

¶4Appellee forwarded 'the check for payment as soon as received, and notified appellant of its loss. Appellant, though repeatedly notified of the nonpayment and loss of the check, remained passive and silent, and took no steps to cause payment to be made. Conceding that • the loss of the check in the mail did not excuse appellee from presenting the same for payment, and that appellant was not bound to give a duplicate check, appellee did notify the Howard County Bank and appellant that the check was outstanding and lost. Appellant, after having acquiesced in the nonpayment on account of the loss of the check, and after having failed to assist in procuring payment, cannot now plead the nonpayment in release because his quondam partner had, in the meantime, wrongfully drawn the money out of the bank. In other words, he pleads, as a defense, the negligence of his creditor in failing to procure payment of the lost check whilst he, with full knowledge of the loss, stood by quiescent, and failed, when called upon, to object to the delay or to assist in bringing about the payment. This he cannot do.

¶5In Kirkpatrick v. Home Building, etc., 119 Pa. St. 30, a case cited by counsel for appellant, the settled rule is stated to be that “a check received for debt is merely conditional payment, that is, satisfaction of the debt if and when paid, but that acceptance of such a check implies an undertaking of due diligence in presenting it for payment; and, if the party from whom it is-received sustains loss by want of such diligence, it will be held to operate as an actual payment.”

¶6Applying the rule thus announced, it is not perceivable wherein appellee has failed to exercise the full measure of diligence in this instance in presenting the check for payment, and in notifying appellant of its loss and nonpayment.

¶7The judgment is affirmed.

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