84 N.Y. 209 | NY | 1881
The plaintiffs' firm were depositors with the defendant, and between the 13th of July, 1869, and the 26th of September, 1870, their deposits, together with the balance to their credit at the former date, amounted to $335,597.67, and during the same period the defendant paid out upon their checks $323,914.01. The defendant has since paid the plaintiffs $3,502.08, leaving a balance of $8,181.58 remaining due from the defendant, unless the plaintiffs are chargeable with thirty-seven forged checks, purporting to have been drawn by them at various dates between July 13, 1869, and September 26, 1870; paid by the bank and charged to their account, amounting in the aggregate to that sum. *212
The plaintiffs were merchants doing business in the city of New York, under the name of Frank Hirsch, and the evidence tends to show that the forgeries were committed by one Goodheim, their book-keeper. The firm kept a check book, in the margin of which all checks drawn by the firm were entered. The checks were filled up by Goodheim, but in all cases genuinc checks were signed by one of the plaintiffs. Goodheim had charge of the bank account. The plaintiffs had a pass-book, in which the bank entered the deposits, and every quarter-day, or soon thereafter, the pass-book was delivered by the plaintiffs to the bank, for the purpose of having their checks entered therein and a balance struck. This was done on four occasions subsequent to July 13, 1869, and the bank on each occasion entered separately in the pass book the amount of each check paid, including the forged checks, and struck a balance and then returned the pass-book with the vouchers to the plaintiffs. But in all this matter, Goodheim acted for the plaintiffs. He delivered the book to the bank and received it again after it was written up, with the vouchers. The plaintiffs, on each occasion after the pass-book had been written up and the vouchers returned, made an examination of the account, by comparing the checks returned to them by Goodheim with the memorandum of checks in the margin of the check-book, and the balance in the pass-book, with the balance appearing in the check-book, and on each occasion they were found to correspond. The plaintiff Frank then compared the checks with the entries in the pass-book, by having Goodheim read the entries while he had the checks, and no discrepancy appearing, the account was deemed to be correct and was not further examined. It very clearly appears that Goodheim, by abstraction of the forged vouchers and by false balances and readings, deceived the plaintiffs and prevented them from ascertaining, by means of the examination as conducted by them, the true state of the account and the fact of the forgeries. Goodheim absconded in September, 1870, and soon afterward the plaintiffs discovered three of the forged checks among the checks then in possession of the bank. This *213 led to further examination and the discovery of the other forgeries. Thirty-four of the checks charged in the account of the bank, claimed to be forged, which had been returned by the bank, were not found or produced on the trial. The inference from the evidence is, that they had been carried away or destroyed by Goodheim.
The recovery by the plaintiffs is sustained by the decision inWeisser's Adm'rs v. Denison (
There are some exceptions to evidence. So far as they were considered in the opinion below, they are satisfactorily answered. We find none which would justify a reversal of the judgment.
The judgment should be affirmed.
All concur.
Judgment affirmed.