Protest

In Contracts. A notarial act, made for want of payment of a promissory note, or for want of acceptance or payment instruments will be held responsible to the holder for all damages, exchanges, re-exchange, etc. A formal notarial certificate attesting the dishonor of a bill of exchange or promissory note. Benj. Chaim. Bills, art.

176.

There are two kinds of protest, namely, protest for non-acceptance, and protest for non-payment. There is also a species of protest common in England, which is called protest for better security. A similar provision is to be found in the Negotiable Instruments Act. Protest for non-acceptance or non-payment, when duly made and accompanied by notice to all the parties to the bill or note, has the effect of making all of them responsible to the holder for the amount of the bill or note, together with damages, etc.; 3 Kent 63; Byles, Bills 273, 394; Chitty, Bills 278; Com. Dig. Merchant (F 8, 9, 30); Bac. Abr. Merchant, etc. (M 7). Protest for better security may be made when the acceptor of a bill fails, becomes insolvent, or in any other way gives the holder just reason to suppose it will not be paid. It seems to be of doubtful utility, except that it gives the drawer of a bill on a foreign country an opportunity of availing himself of any attachment law there in force; 1 Dd. Raym. 745.

— The protest is a formal paper signed and sealed by a notary wherein he certifies that on the day of its date he presented the original bill attached thereunto, or a copy (a description of the bill is enough; Dennistoun v. Stewart, 17 How. [U. SJ 606, 15 L*. Ed. 228), to the acceptor, or the original note to the maker thereof, and demanded payment, or acceptance, which was refused, for reasons given in the protest, and that thereupon he protests against the drawer and indorsers thereof for exchange, re-exchange, damages, costs, and interest. See Benj. Chaim. Bills, art. 176; 2 Ames, Bills & N. 863. It is usual, also, for the notary to serve notices of the protest on all the parties to the bill. The notice contains a description of the bill, including its date and amount, the fact of demand and refusal, and that the holder looks to the person notified for payment. A waiver of notice of protest by an accommodation endorser 38 months after maturity of the note with full knowledge that demand had not been made or notice of protest given, is binding without a new consideration; Burgettstown Nat. Bk. v. NRI, 213 Pa. 456, 63 Atl. 386, 3 L. R. A. (N. S.) 3079, 110 Am. St. Rep. 554, 5 Ann. Cas. 476; notice of protest to a drawer who executed an assignment for the benefit of creditors is sufficient to bind the estate in the hands of the assignee; Moreland’s Adm’r v. Bank, 114 Ky. 577, 71 S. W. 520, 61 L. R. A. 900, 102 Am. St. Rep. 293. Taylor, 2 H. & J. (Md.) 399, 3 Am. Dec. 554; Nicholls v. Webb, 8 Wheat. (U. S.) 333, 5 L. Ed. 628. Protest is said to be part of the constitution of a foreign bill; and the form Is governed by the lex loci contractus; Bank of Rochester v. Gray, 2 Hill (N. Y.) 227; Tickner v. Roberts, 11 La. 14, 30 Am. Dec. 706; Townsley v. Sumrall, 2 Pet. (U. S.) 179, 180, 7 L. Ed. 386. Story, Bills 176 (by the place where the protest is made; Benj. Chaim. Bills, art. 180). A protest must be made by a notary public or other person authorized to act as such; Benj. Chaim. Bills, art. 177; but it has been held that the duties of a notary cannot be performed by a clerk or deputy; Ocean Nat. Bank v. Williams, 102 Mass. 141. Inland bills and promissory notes need not be protested; Bailey v. Dozier, 6 How. (U. S.) 23, 12 L. Ed. 328; see Tresbrey v. Thomas, 1 App. D. C. 171; but the term protest, as applied to inland bills of exchange, includes only the steps necessary to charge the drawer and indorser; Wood River Bank v. Bank, 36 Neb. 744, 55 N. W. 239. Protest is unnecessary to fix the liability of an indorser on a non-negotiable instrument; Kampmann v. Williams, 70 Tex. 568, 8 S. W. 310. By the Negotiable Instruments Act a foreign bill, if dishonored by non-acceptance, or, after acceptance, by non-payment, must be protested; if not, the drawer and endorsers are discharged. The protest must be annexed to the bill, or must contain a copy thereof, under the hand and seal of the notary making it, and must specify the time and place of presentment^ the fact and manner thereof, the cause or reason for protesting the bill, and the demand made and the answer given, if any, or the fact that the drawee or acceptor could not be found. Protest may be made by a notary;

— or it may be by any respectable resident of the place of dishonor, in the presence of two or more credible witnesses. Protest must be made on the day of dishonor, but is dispensed with by any circumstances which woulc^ dispense with notice of dishonor. See Presentment. It must be at the place of dishonor, except that when a bill drawn at the place of business or residence of some person other than the drawee, has been dishonored by non-acceptance, it must be protested for non-payment at the place where it is expressed to be payable, and no further presentment 4or payment to, or demand on, the drawee is necessary. After protest for non-acceptance a bill may be protested for non-payment. Where the acceptor has been adjudged bankrupt or insolvent, or has assigned for creditors, before the bill matures, it may be protested for better security against the drawer and indorsers. protest may be on a qopy or written particulars thereof. Where a defendant 'negligently caused an original note to be protested after he had received a renewal note, the maker of the note can recover in tort for the damage to his credit; State Mutual Life Ass’n v. Baldwin, 116 Ga. 855, 43 S. E. 262. See Acceptance; Bills of Exchange; Notice of Dishonor; Presentment. In Legislation. A declaration made by one or more members of a legislative body that they do not agree with some act or resolution of the body: it is usual to add the reasons which the protestants have for such a dissent See 2 Redlich, Proc. in H. of C. 233, as to protest in the House of Lords. In Maritime Law. A writing, attested by a justice of the peace, a notary public, or a consul, made and verified by the master of a vessel, stating the severity of a voyage by which a ship has suffered, and showing that it was not owing to the neglect or misconduct of the master. See Richette v. Stewart, 1 Da 11. 317, 1 L. Ed. 154; Fleming v. Ins. Co., 3 W. & S. (Pa.) 144, 38 Am. Dec. 747. It cannot be made by a notary except under the lex mercatoria, or by statute; Patterson v. Ins. Co., 3 liarr. & J. (Md.) 71, 5 Am. Dec. 419. The protest is not, in general, evidence for the master of the vessel or his owners in the English or American courts; yet it is often proper evidence against them; Abb. Sh., 13th ed. 457.