Law Commons^™

Goldstein's Curse, James J. White

Articles

ON April 16, 1980, a man using the name Marvin Goldstein opened a bank account at a Baltimore branch of Union Trust Company. He deposited $15,000 in cash. He told the branch manager that he planned to establish a Baltimore office of his father's New York business, "Goldstein's Precious Metals and Stones." Goldstein identified himself with a New Jersey driver's license and gave a bank reference from New York. On May 6, Goldstein deposited a check for $880,000 at another Union Trust branch near the branch where he had opened the account. Words on this check indicated that it was …

Travelers Checks, James J. White

Articles

A. Travelers Checks Defined 1. Courts have variously described travelers checks as certificates of deposit, negotiable instruments, securities, cash, and cashier's checks. 2. The most persuasive analysis seems to treat travelers checks as cashier's checks on which the issuer is both the drawer and the drawee, the purchaser once he has countersigned is the payee, and both the purchaser and the next recipient are indorsers.

Blocking Payment On A Certified, Cashier's, Or Bank Check, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

When disputes arise between buyers and sellers over completed commercial transactions and payment has been delivered to the seller in the form of a negotiable instrument, a dissatisfied buyer may seek to suspend the instrument's payment obligation. By blocking payment the buyer strengthens his bargaining position and prevents the seller from dissipating the proceeds of the sale before the buyer can establish the merit of his claim. Blocking payment forces the seller to enforce the commercial agreement through court action or satisfy the buyer's grievances.

Some Petty Complaints About Article Three, James J. White

Articles

IN many ways Article Three of the Uniform Commercial Code (Code) is like a huge machine assembled by a mad inventor and comprised of assorted sprockets, gears, levers, pulleys, and belts. Few thoroughly understand all of the jobs which this machine is to perform; and a search through the reported cases suggests that the machine is either performing so efficiently that it commits no mistakes worth litigating or it is not performing at all. In their study of the intricacies of Article Three, law students resemble persons climbing about on the machine-pulling its levers, testing its belts and pulleys, and …

Promissory Notes In The Legislations Of The Americas, Juan Octavio Díaz Lewis

Michigan Law Review

It has rightly been said that the promissory note is the Cinderella of negotiable paper. It is indeed strange that this instrument, widely used in most countries, is accorded only a few words in the legal textbooks and a few sections in the respective statutes. The purpose of the present study is not to rescue promissory notes from their present position of obscurity, but rather to present a unified classification of the specific provisions relating thereto, which are in force at the present time in the legislations of the American continent.

Acceptance By Intervention In Bills Of Exchange, Salvador Ltriago

Michigan Law Review

Intervention is an act whereby a person becomes a party to a negotiable instrument, whether by accepting the bill or by paying the sum indicated thereon, in order to relieve one of the obligors on the bill from the action of recourse that the holder could assert against him in consequence of default of acceptance or payment by the drawee.

The complexity of the material to be discussed renders it necessary, in order to clarify the development of the exposition, for us to advance several concepts, which will later be considered more fully at the proper places.

Trusts-Participation By Banks In Diversion Of Trust Funds

Michigan Law Review

That fiduciaries who misappropriate or divert trust funds from their proper purpose are bound to make good is familiar doctrine. It is equally clear that those who guiltily participate in such. diversions by faithless fiduciaries are also liable. The point of chief difficulty is the determination of what participations are properly classified as guilty, for innocent participators clearly are not bound to make good. For example, a fiduciary with power to sell things held in trust may wish to turn the subject matter into cash preliminary to a misappropriation. A bona fide purchaser who provides the cash no doubt stands …

Bills And Notes-Alteration By Collateral Written Agreement

Michigan Law Review

Defendant was accommodation indorser on two of four notes executed at the same time with different maturity dates. As part of the same transaction, but unknown to the defendant, the maker, two other indorsers, and the payee, plaintiff in the cause, entered into an agreement in writing whereby the maturity of the unpaid notes would be accelerated on default as to any due. Held, in, an action on the notes, that instruments simultaneously executed and referring to the same subject matter are to be construed together, and the effect of such integration here was to bring about an alteration …

Banks And Banking - Land Contract As Item For Collection Under The Bank Collection Code

Michigan Law Review

The petitioner deposited with A Bank a land contract. The bank was to collect payments thereon and remit them to the petitioner. After making two collections amounting to $100, the bank became insolvent and the petitioner sought a preferred claim against all the assets of the bank. The Bank Collection Code (sec. 13 of Act No. 240 of the Public Acts of Michigan, 1931) was the basis of his claim. The trial judge allowed him a preference as to cash assets on hand at the time the receiver took possession. Since it was doubtful whether there would be any cash …

Mortgages -Assignment In Good Faith After Maturity Cuts Off Prior Latent Equities

Michigan Law Review

M executed a negotiable note payable to the order of P, secured by a mortgage. After maturity, P assigned the note and mortgage without his indorsement to X for value. Y procured an assignment of these from X by fraud and in turn assigned them to Z, a purchaser without notice and for value. In Z's suit to foreclose the mortgage, X intervened, demanding the delivery of the same to himself. Held, Z's bona fide purchase cut off X's latent equity. Frank v. Brown, 255 Mich. 415, 238 N. W. 237 (1931).

Bills And Notes-Negotiability Of Corporate Debentures

Michigan Law Review

Many corporate bonds and debentures contain some such reference provision as the following: "* * * all [bonds, debentures] issued under a certain Trust Agreement, dated as of June 15, 1926, executed by the Company to the National City Bank of New York, as Trustee, to which Trust Agreement reference is hereby made for a statement of the terms under which the said Debentures are issued and the rights and obligations of the Company, of the Trustee and of the respective holders of the said Debentures under said Trust Agreement. * * *." To this clause some of these securities …

Rights Of Holder Of Bill Of Exchange Against The Drawee, Ralph W. Aigler

Articles

“If the question were put to the average layman whether the holder of a check...had any effective rights against the drawee bank, it is believed that the almost universal response would be to the effect that of course the holder may insist upon payment by the bank, if there are funds on deposit to cover the amount. And if the same question were propounded to the average lawyer, the reply generally would be--at least if the lawyer had in mind the provisions of the Uniform Negotiable Instruments Law--that the holder had no rights against the bank. It is the purpose …

Recognition Of New Types Of Negotiable Instruments, Ralph W. Aigler

Articles

“The expression ‘negotiable instrument’ is one of variable meaning, and what is meant thereby often can be determined only by the context… Primarily ‘negotiable’ indicates transferability with a certain facility…..

“It may be not without interest to consider how instruments gain the negotiable quality and to trace, sketchily perhaps, the process of recognition.”

Commercial Instruments, The Law Merchant And Negotiability, Ralph W. Aigler

Articles

“Until recently apparently no serious attempt had been to make a comprehensive examination into the origins and history of commercial instruments or to explain the special doctrines attached to negotiability….

“The bill of exchange, it is said, developed as a bit of machinery to give effect to the medieval contract of cambium which was concerned with the special case of the exchange of money for money. With the growth of foreign trade the difficulties and dangers of payments multiplied. Naturally those whose business it was to exchange monies were resorted to in this connection. They, in turn, out of necessities …

Gratuitous Partial Assignments, Edwin D. Dickinson

Articles

"Is it possible to make an effective and irrevocable assignment by way of gift of part of a close action? There are no obvious reasons why it should not be possible. Gifts of a great variety of valuable rights are favored and protected by law. Why not a gift of part of a chose in action?"

Is A Bank Check An Assignment Pro Tanto Of The Fund Or Deposit?, Ralph W. Aigler

Articles

Before the Negotiable Instruments Law there was a clear conflict of authority as to whether a check for a portion of the account to the credit of the drawer was an assignment pro tanto of the fund.

Selected Cases On The Law Of Negotiable Instruments, Robert E. Bunker

Books

The cases appearing in this volume have been selected primarily for the use of students pursuing the study of Negotiable Instruments and particularly for students in the Law Department of the University of Michigan. They are arranged in order to conform to the plan of instruction now pursued in that Department. The plan to which reference is made is sufficiently indicated by the Table of Contents infra. In brief, it involves a study of the law of Negotiable Instruments on the basis of the contract of the several parties as that law has been declared by the courts and, …

The Negotiable Instruments Law With Annotations, Robert E. Bunker

Books

"The Negotiable Instruments Law was enacted by the Legislature of Michigan at its 1905 session and on this 16th day of September, 1905, becomes a law of the State.

Soon after the approval of the Act -- June 16, 1905, -- I undertook the work of annotating the statute and of explaining its origin, scope and purpose in such particulars as seemed to invite explanation....

I submit the result of my work -- undertaken in the hope that it might help the profession and the bankers and the business men in dealing with this statute -- to all who may …

Elements Of The Law Of Negotiable Contracts, Elias Finley Johnson

Books

“The cases here collected and annotated, have been selected by the undersigned, primarily for the use of students in his classes. To make a wise selection of cases from the large number that are to be found upon a particular subject is a most difficult task … It has been attempted here to select, as far as possible, the very earliest cases upon the particular subject, so that the student would thereby be able to get at the reason of the rule without reference to any statutory provisions. Attention is called to the latest cases, however, in the foot notes.” …