74 Mo. App. 281 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1898
— The petition stated that the plaintiffs (respondents) were members of a copartnership doing a general commission business in the city of St. Louis, under the partnership name of M. M. McKeen & Company; that defendant is a banking corporation organized under the laws of the state of Missouri and doing a banking business in the same city; that for many years past the plaintiffs had been in the habit of keeping on deposit with the defendant bank large sums of money, in the name of M. M. McKeen & Company; that prior to May 23, 1895, they deposited with thd] defendant $480 to be paid to them on demand; thatj on May 23, 1895, they demanded payment of the saidj sum of $480 of the defendant bank, and that payment i was refused. The answer was, first, a general denial. Second. That a certain check for $480, in favor of one H. J. Cory, made and indorsed by plaintiffs, was presented to and paid by defendant on April 13, 1895, and that plaintiffs now allege that the signature and indorsement of such cheek was forged, though before
It appeared from the testimony that the firm of M. M. McKeen & Company had been depositors in the defendant bank for about twenty years continuously, and that from time to time their pass-book was balanced by the bank officers and their cheeks and orders drawn on the bank were canceled and returned to them with the pass-book, after the same had been balanced. On these occasions the plaintiffs were required and gave a receipt to the bank for the checks and orders, which receipt contained this clause: “ All claims for reclamation to be made tvithin ten days from date.” On Saturday, April 13, 1895, a check dated on
“The object of a pass-book is to inform the depositor from time to time of the condition of his account as it appears upon the book of the bank. It not only enables him to discover errors to his prejudice, but supplies evidence in his favor, in the event of litigation or dispute with the bank. In this way it operates to .protect him against carelessness or fraud of the bank.” The sending of the pass-book to be written up and returned with the vouchers is theiefore in effect a demand to know what the bank claims to be the state of his account,” says Justice Harlan in Bank v. Morgan, supra.
All that can be said of this non-action on the part of the respondents is, that it was negligence, and negligence for which they must answer, if the bank suffered loss thereby; that loss, however, must have