45 Pa. Super. 193 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1911
Ferguson, J.,
filed the following opinion:
It is not necessary for us to determine in this case if the certificate of deposit was an instrument the title to which could be passed by negotiation. The Statement alleges that Fallon assigned and transferred the certificate and that similar assignments and transfers were made by the other holders, until the instrument came into the hands of the present plaintiff, and suit is brought in the name of Fallon to the use of the intervening holders and the present holder. The allegation of the transfer and assignment of the certificate is not denied in the affidavit of defense; neither is it denied that the certificate when presented for payment was indorsed as required by its terms. The present holder thereof must be held to be an assignee of such interest in the certificate as Fallon originally had.
The defense in substance is that before maturity Fallon stopped payment of the certificate, and it is argued that the instrument is not a negotiable instrument, and hence the present holder takes it subject to such equities as exist between the defendant and the original holder. No equity that we can see has been averred as between the defendant and Fallon. The obligation was not Fallon’s obligation, but the obligation of the defendant, in which it certified that it held a certain amount payable, with interest, on a certain date. That Fallon notified the defendant not to pay the certificate is not an averment of any defense against the certificate had it been in the hands of Fallon. The instrument sued upon is an
A bona fide holder for value takes no better title than the transferrer, and also takes subject to any equities which may be existing at the time of maturity, between the maker of the paper and the person to whom it was issued. The following decisions establish this principle: Patterson v. Poindexter, 6 W. & S. 227; Charnley v. Dulles, 8 W. & S. 353; Lebanon Bank v. Mangan, 28 Pa. 452; London Savings
We are of opinion the affidavit is insufficient and that judgment should be entered for the plaintiff.
cited: McGough v. Jamison, 4 Penny. 154; Pittsburg v. Daly, 5 Superior Ct. 528; Nat. Bank of Ft. Edward v. Washington County Nat. Bank, 5 Hun (N. Y.), 605.
However it may have been at the time the decision in Wright v. Hart, 44 Pa. 454, was rendered, we think it. must now be held that the holder of a certificate of deposit payable in “current funds,” who is otherwise entitled to recover thereon, is entitled to judgment for the amount specified in the certificate, without proof of value. In Bull v. First National Bank of Kasson, 123 U. S. 105, 8 Sup. Ct. Repr. 62, after stating that there were numerous cases where a designation of the payment of bills, promissory notes and checks, in notes of particular banks or associations, or in paper not. current as money, has been held to destroy their negotiability, Mr. Justice Field said: “But within a few years, commencing with the first issue in this country of notes declared to have the quality of legal tender, it has been a common practice of drawers of bills of exchange or checks, or makers of promissory notes, to indicate whether the same are to be paid in gold or silver-or in such notes; and the term 'current funds’ has been used to designate any of these, all being current and declared, by positive enactment, to be legal tender. It was intended to cover what was receivable and current by law as money, whether in the form of notes or coin.” Numerous other cases might be cited in which this inter
The judgment is affirmed.