150 N.Y. 455 | NY | 1896
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The character of the plaintiff as a bona fide holder of the note is not affected by any misconception it may have been under when it discounted it, as to the legal import of the promise, that is to say, whether the note was the obligation of the Wallis Iron Works, or of the persons who signed it in their individual names, with the addition of the names of their respective offices. The bank discounted the note at the request of its customers, the payees, before maturity, paying full value, without inquiring as to the nature of the principal obligation, and it is entitled to enforce it against the *458
defendants as individuals, if on its face it was their promise, and not the promise of the corporation of which they were officers. It may be admitted that if the bank, when it discounted the paper, was informed or knew that the note was issued by the corporation, and was intended to create only a corporate liability, it could not be enforced against the defendants as individuals, who, by mistake, had executed it in such form as to make it on its face their own note and not that of the corporation. But according to the rules governing commercial paper nothing short of notice, express or implied, brought home to the bank at the time of the discount, that the note was issued as the note of the corporation, and was not intended to bind the defendants, could defeat its remedy against the parties actually liable thereon as promisors. It appears that the bank discounted the note on the credit primarily of its customers, the payees, making no inquiry as to whether it was a corporate or individual obligation, and having no knowledge on the subject. In law it was the individual note of the defendants (Casco National Bank v.Clark,
We think the judgment is right, and it should, therefore, be affirmed.
All concur.
Judgment affirmed. *459