46 P. 830 | Idaho | 1896
There appears to be no dispute as to the facts in this case. They are, briefly, as follows: The defendant was •on the nineteenth day of March,-1895, and for some time previous had been, engaged in the banking business in the town of Moscow, Idaho. The plaintiffs were customers and depositors
We are admonished by section 4 of our Revised Statutes that our statutes “are to be liberally construed, with a view to effect their objects and promote justice.” We are unable to discern wherein or how justice would be promoted by allowing the defendant corporation to avoid the payment of a debt which, as matter of fact, it admits it owes, because some custom of bankers or technical rule of law has not been observed by the creditor. We can see but little cogency in the claim that no demand is alleged or proven. The defendant closed its doors permanently within an hour after the issuance of the last draft. Where and of whom should a demand be made? Not of the president of the bank surely. He is not the bank. Nor of any other officer of the institution. It could only be made of the bank by shouting through the keyhole, and, had that course been resorted to, we doubt not the answer of defendant would have bristled with technical objections against such procedure. No demand was necessary, for it would have been, as the record clearly shows, one of those vain and useless things which the law does not require. And the same may be said of the want . of presentation of the drafts at the Chase National Bank. It would have been a vain and useless thing. The attempt by defendant to create an impression that, if presented, the drafts would have been paid, is a failure. The testimony fails to establish any such thing. There is no pretense that the defendant has been damaged by any alleged remissness of plaintiffs. As we have before said, the record, when analyzed, shows a naked attempt to avoid the payment of a just debt through the technicalities of the law; and, whatever the result might be in other jurisdictions, we have the positive inhibition contained in section 4231 of our Revised Statutes, which is as follows: “The court must in every stage of an action disregard any error or defect in the pleadings or proceedings which does not affect the substantial rights of the parties, and no judgment will be re