168 Pa. 468 | Pa. | 1895
Opinion by
Two lines of defense were taken in this case in the court below. The first of these denied the capacity of the plaintiffs to sue, and was brought to the attention of the learned judge by a prayer for instructions to the jury “ that under the evidence in this ease and the statutes governing national banks the plaintiffs cannot maintain the pending action against the defendant.” The second alleged that the note sued on was made for the accommodation of F. W. Kennedy, president of the Spring Gar
At the close of each meeting the amount due to and from each bank is definitely ascertained. The debtor banks then pay over to the manager the gross balance due from them to settle their accounts with all the members of the association, and he makes distribution of the sum so received among the creditor banks entitled to receive them. The clearing house is therefore not a business organization, a corporation, a partnership or an artificial person of any sort, but a place in which the thirty-eight members of the association settle with each other daily. We come now to consider the committee and the position in the general scheme occupied by it. Among the economies in time and labor contemplated by the banks was a settlement of daily balances without the necessity for handling and counting the cash in every case. To provide for this the banks agreed that they would deposit in the hands of certain persons, to be selected by them and to be called the clearing house committee, a sum of money, or its equivalent in good securities, at a fixed ratio upon their capital stock, to be used for payment of balances against them. For these sums the committee was to issue receipts or certificates in convenient sums, and these receipts or certificates were to be used in lieu of the cash they represented, which remained in the hands of the committee pledged for the payment, when payment became necessary, of the certificates. The committee held the funds and securities deposited with them in trust for the special purpose of securing the payment as far as they would reach of the balances due from the bank making the deposit. On Sept. 24, 1873, the associated banks entered into another agreement with each other by which “ for the purpose of enabling the banks, members of the Philadelphia Clearing House Association, to afford proper assistance to the mercantile and manufacturing community and also to faciliate the inter-bank settlements resulting from the daily exchanges,” they authorized the committee to receive from any member of the association additional deposits of bills receivable and other securities and issue certificates therefor “ in
The evidence offered at the trial to show that the note was without consideration and given for the accommodation of F. W. Kennedy, by whom it was used in exactly the manner that must
The judgment is now affirmed.