O'Brien vs. Smith

Syllabus

O’Brien vs. Smith. 1. Where a check drawn in the afternoon of Saturday is presented for payment on the morning of the next Monday there is no negligence or delay which will discharge the drawer. 2. The holder of the cheek being the cashier of an unincorporated banking association, and holding it for the use of the concern, may recover upon it in his own name. James O’Brien, the defendant below, on the 18th of September, 1858, drew his check on Chubb & Bro. for $1,150, and passed it to the Bank of the Metropolis in part payment of a debt which he owed there, and which was due that day. The drawee’s place of business was in the same street with the Bank of the Metropolis, and only eighty feet distant. The Bank of the Metropolis took the check on a Saturday, about two o’clock in the afternoon, and presented it for payment on the following Monday at eleven o’clock in the morning. Chuhb & Bro. had failed in the mean time, and payment was fefused. The check was duly protested, and notice of its dishonor was regularly given to the drawer. The Bank of .the Metropolis was not an incorporated institution, but a private partnership, carrying on business under that name. Richard Smith, its cashier, held the note for the use of the concern, and brought assumpsit in the Circuit Court to recover the amount of the check from O’Brien, the drawer. The defence was that the Bank of the Metropolis ought to have demanded payment of the check on the day it was received, and that the postponement of