or not. Where the proper place of presentment is the office or the residence of the acceptor or maker, the presentment is good, even if the doors of the office or house be closed and no answer can be obtained. In this case it is the place and not the person to whom, which determines the effect of the presentment.

§ 152. Presentment is demand of payment accompanied by exhibition of instrument. Since the instrument must be surrendered upon its payment, a presentment for payment should be accompanied by a production of the instrument, or, at least, an ability forthwith to produce it. If the maker or acceptor unqualifiedly refuses to pay before the instrument is produced, there seems to be no occasion for the formal act of exhibiting it. The N. I. L. provides generally:

Sec. 74. The instrument must be exhibited to the person from whom payment is demanded, and when it is paid must be delivered up to the party paying it.

SECTION 2. PRESENTMENT FOR ACCEPTANCE.

§ 153. When presentment for acceptance necessary. Until a bill of exchange has been accepted, the drawee is under no obligation to the payee or holder to pay it. The rights of the holder are against the drawer and indorsers, who have promised conditionally to pay if the drawee does not. If the holder wishes the promise of the drawee, he may present the bill to the drawee requesting his acceptance. But, in general, the holder has the option, either of presenting the bill before maturity for acceptance, or of

waiting until maturity and presenting it for payment. There are, however, certain cases where the failure of the holder to make a presentment for acceptance will discharge the drawer and indorsers (17). The N. I. L. enumerates them as follows:

Sec. 143. Presentment for acceptance must be made:

1. Where the bill is payable after sight, or in any other case where presentment for acceptance is necessary in order to fix the maturity of the instrument;

2. Where the bill expressly stipulates that it shall be presented for acceptance; or

3. Where the bill is drawn payable elsewhere than at the residence or place of business of the drawee.

In no other case is presentment for acceptance necessary in order to render any party to the bill liable.

§ 154. Dishonor by non-acceptance. Whether a presentment for acceptance is necessary or not, if it is actually made and the drawee refuses to accept, the bill is dishonored and the holder is entitled to immediate payment from the drawer or indorsers, although the bill may not be due for months or years (18). But the obligations of the drawer and indorsers are conditional upon due notice of dishonor, which must be given in accordance with the rules governing a notice of dishonor by non-payment (19).

SECTION 3. NOTICE OF DISHONOR.

§ 155. In general. After presentment for payment to

the acceptor or maker, the next step in fixing the liability of the drawer and indorsers is notice to them that the instrument has been dishonored. Such a notice is called a notice of dishonor.

§ 156. Form of notice.

"The notice may be in writing or merely oral and may be given in any terms which sufficiently identify the instrument and indicate that it has been dishonored by non-payment" (20). "A written notice need not be signed, and an insufficient written notice may be supplemented and validated by verbal communication. A misdescription of the instrument does not vitiate the notice, unless the party to whom the notice is given is in fact misled thereby❞ (21).

A notice of dishonor, then, may be an unsigned communication in writing, or an oral communication, or a communication partly written and partly oral. The notice (1) ought to identify the dishonored instrument, and (2) must indicate that it has been dishonored by non-payment.

§ 157. Identification of dishonored instrument. The usual and proper mode of describing the dishonored instrument in a notice of dishonor is by giving its amount, its date, its date of maturity, and the names of all the parties to it. But, as the N. I. L. says, a misdescription, and by implication an incomplete description, does not vitiate the notice, if the person receiving it knows that it relates to a bill or note upon which he is drawer or indorser. For

(20) Neg. Inst. Law, sec. 96.

(21) N. I. L., sec. 95.

this reason, a notice which misstated the amount and did not state the names of the indorsers, has been held sufficient (22), the court saying: "The defendant, however, does not show that he was in the least misled or confused by the omission, or by the mistake. On the contrary, it clearly appears that he understood the notice to refer to the note in suit. He was, therefore, fully informed of the dishonor of this note and that the holder looked to him for payment. This was sufficient to fix his liability."

§ 158. Indication of dishonor. An instrument is "dishonored by non-payment when it is duly presented for payment and payment is refused or cannot be obtained" (23). An indication of dishonor is therefore an indication (1) that a technical presentment for payment has been made, and (2) that the instrument is unpaid. Both of these elements of a "dishonor by non-payment" must appear from the notice by "reasonable intendment," although they need not be expressly stated in it. Under this rule, a mere statement that the instrument is due and unpaid is insufficient. There may have been no presentment (24). Again, a statement that payment has been demanded is not enough. Due presentment is a presentation of the instrument to the maker or acceptor, as well as a demand. A notice stating directly that the instrument has been "dishonored" or "protested" is valid, because the reasonable intendment is that the proper steps to dishonor the paper have been taken.

§ 159. By whom notice may be given. The proper person to give notice of dishonor in the first instance is the holder. But any indorser to whom the holder has given notice may also serve notice on indorsers prior to him. If he were not permitted to do this, the liability of the prior indorsers to him might not be fixed; for the holder is not obliged to give notice to all indorsers, but only to such as he wishes to hold, and only indorsers to whom notice is sent are bound. However, before an indorser can give notice, his liability as such must have been fixed. A notice of dishonor can be given only by the holder, or by an indorser whose liability to pay the holder has become absolute. For example, a notice by an indorser who has been discharged, because no notice has been served upon him, is ineffectual. So also is a notice sent by a stranger. The N. I. L. says:

Sec. 90. The notice may be given by or on behalf of the holder, or by or on behalf of any party to the instrument who might be compelled to pay it to the holder, and who, upon taking it up, would have a right to reimbursement from the party to whom the notice is given.

An illustration may make this clearer. X is the holder of a note, indorsed successively by A, B, C, and D. Upon dishonor, X may give notice to all the indorsers, in which event each becomes responsible to X for the amount of the note; or he may give notice to D only. If he pursues the latter course, D's responsibility to X being fixed, D may, in order to protect himself, give notice to any or all of the three prior indorsers. Neither B nor C, however, is en