69 Pa. Super. 89 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1918
Opinion by
The plaintiff, the Knights of Joseph Building & Loan Association, through its proper officers on October 6, 1914, gave its check drawn on the Guarantee Trust & Safe Deposit Company to the order of B. Green. Keisler, the secretary of the association, forged the name of Green as endorser and secured the payment of the check, it having been forwarded through the Sixth National Bank which guaranteed the endorsement. The association was notified of the forgery February 24, 1915, but no notice of this fact was sent to the trust company until April 2, 1915. Appeal is taken by the Sixth National Bank which claims under the Act of May 22, 1722, to be a party aggrieved by the judgment.
(1) Has the bank a right to take this appeal? The language of the Act of May 22,1722, Sec. 9, 1 Sm. Laws 138, is as follows: “That if any person or persons shall find him or themselves aggrieved with the judgment of any of the said courts......it shall and may be lawful to and for the party or parties, so aggrieved, to have his or their writ or writs of error; which shall be granted them of course.”
It is conceded that the bank was not a party to the suit in the court below and was notified to come in and defend but it did not appear. Thus it is concluded by the judgment as to all defenses set up in the action: Ayres v. Findley, 1 Pa. 501; Northumberland Co. Bank v. Eyer, 58 Pa. 97; Fowler v. Jersey Shore Borough, 17 Pa. Superior Ct. 366. In other words, if the judgment stands it will be required to pay it ultimately but if it be reversed it need pay nothing. Similar appeal statutes are found in many of the states and it has frequently been decided in other jurisdictions that it is not essential that appellant should be a party of record to the litigation in which the judgment is rendered or privy thereto. It is sufficient if he be aggrieved thereby: 2 Cyc. 627, 633. The language of our statute includes any
(2) Was the delay by the association in notifying the trust company of the forgery fatal to the plaintiff’s right to. recover? In McNeely Co. v. Bank of N. America, 221 Pa. 588 (592), the law is stated, “The duty of a depositor in a bank, upon discovering that it has paid and charged to his account either a check bearing his forged
The assignments of error are sustained and the record remitted with direction that judgment be entered in favor of the defendant.