134 P. 883 | Utah | 1913
Tbe facts are undisputed. Tbe case was presented on an agreed statement. Tbe substance of it is:
Tbe defendant operated a railroad and bad in its employ several thousand employees, who were paid on tbe 10th of each month for services rendered tbe previous month. At tbe end of each month it prepared a pay roll containing tbe names of tbe employees, their occupation, places employed, number of days worked, and tbe amount due. Pay checks were then prepared in which tbe date, tbe name of tbe employee, and tbe amount due were stated. Tbe paymaster with tbe pay car, tbe pay rolls, and checks traveled bis district from place to place, and delivered tbe checks to tbe employees, who passed through tbe car to receive them. In October, 1911, tbe defendant bad in its employ two firemen, E. 0. Fields and O. B. Rings, who worked on its road between Salt Lake City and Helper, Utah. At tbe end of that month it owed Fields for services $93.49; Rings $109.15. Their names were on tbe pay roll and pay checks made out to each. Tbe one to Fields is:
“Tbe Denver & Rio Grande Railroad Co. Roll No. 1540. No. 4. Denver, Colo., November 10, 1911. Tbe treasurer of tbe Denver & Rio Grande Railroad Co. will pay to tbe order of C. E. Fields $93.49, ninety-three and 49-100 dollars for services rendered during tbe month of October, 1911, when countersigned by Freeman Sumner, paymaster. J. W. Gilluly, Treasurer. F. Sumner, Paymaster. No. C368899.” Tbe other to Rings is tbe same, except tbe sub
The plaintiff formerly was in the employ of the defendant at Salt Lake Oity, and had a general acquaintance with its employees at that place; but at and prior to the time in question he was engaged in the saloon business at Salt Lake City and had been in the habit of cashing at their face value a large number of the employees’ checks. The impostors in the. afternoon of the day they obtained the checks presented them to the plaintiff, and asked him to cash them. They
The plaintiff, in support of his contention that the defendant, “having permitted the checks by mistake to come into the hands of the impostors,” who wrongfully received them, and without authority and by forgery indorsed them “to a tona -fide holder, is liable to such holder for the payment of the same”—cites: U. S. v. National Exchange Bank (C. C.) 45 Fed. 163; National Bank v. Shotwell, 35 Kan. 360, 11 Pac. 141; Crippen Lawrence & Co. v. American National Bank, 51 Mo. App 508; Meridian National Bank, etc. v. First National Bank, 7 Ind. App. 322, 33 N. E. 247, 34 N. E. 608, 52 Am. St. Rep. 450; Robertson v. Coleman, 141 Mass. 231, 4 N. E. 619, 55 Am. Rep. 471; Maloney v. Clark, 6 Kan. 83; E. S. Karoly Co. v. Globe Savings Bank, 64 Ill. App. 225; Famous Shoe & Clothing Co. v. Crosswhite, 124 Mo. 34, 27 S. W. 397, 26 L. R. A. 568, 46 Am. St. Rep, 424; Fiore v. Ladd & Tilton, 22 Or. 202, 29 Pac. 435; and McHenry v. Old Citizens’ National Bank, 85
“Where a signature is forged or • made without the authority of the person whose signature it purports to be, it is wholly inoperative, and no right to retain the instrument, or to give a discharge therefor, or to enforce payment thereof against any party thereto, can be acquired through or under such signature, unless the party against whom it is sought to enforce such right is precluded from setting up the forgery or want of authority.”
And as plaintiff has no other claim of title it follows he cannot prevail.
That part of the judgment which is in the defendant’s favor is therefore affirmed; that in favor of the plaintiff