Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

98 Mass. 294

Ames v. Meriam

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Decided November 15, 1867

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1867-11-15

Contract on the defendants’ check, dated January 2, 1865, on a bank in Boston, for seven hundred dollars, payable “ to J. L. Babson or bearer,” and indorsed “John L. Babson, Vm.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1867-11-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 12 later decisions — most recently January 1942

12 state decisions

30186718701880189019001910192019301940decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Bigelow, C. J

¶1The ru.e that a bill of exchange or promis*296Bory note, taken when it is over due, is subject in the hands of the holder to all the equities attaching to it as between the original parties, or as against the person from whom the holder receives it, does not apply to checks on banks, when they are . taken within a brief period of time after their date. These, although payable on demand, are not treated as being dishonored or over due on the day, or immediately after the day, of their date. A holder, who takes a check in good faith and for value several days after it is drawn, receives it without being subject to defences of which he has no notice before or at the time his title accrues. This is the rule of law as settled by uniform practice and the current of decisions in the courts of the United States. In re Brown, 2 Story, 502. Chit. Bills, (12th Am. ed.) 222, and note. Byles on Bills, (5th Am. ed.) 130 note.

¶2It is not contended that the defendants sustained any injury or loss by the omission to present the check immediately aftei it was drawn, and the evidence was plenary of a waiver by the defendants of an earlier presentment of the check than was made by the plaintiffs. Exceptions overruled.

/98/mass/294 · .json · Public domain