CHAPTER Usance. Old and new style. Days of grace. What in different countries. exclusively of the day from which the time is to run, and inclusively of the day on which it falls due, or rather would fall due but for the days of grace (e). When a bill is payable at a fixed period after sight, the time begins to run from the date of acceptance, if it be accepted, and from the date of noting or protest if the bill be noted or protested for non-acceptance or non-delivery (e). The term month in a bill or note means calendar month (f). When a bill drawn in one country is payable in another, the due date thereof is determined according to the law of the place where payable (g). Usance was the period which, in early times, it was usual to appoint between different countries for the payment of bills, When usance is a month, half usance is always fifteen days (h), notwithstanding the unequal length of the months. It is now almost if not quite obsolete. It is said that all the countries with which the English are in the habit of negotiating bills, compute their time by the new style, with the single exception of Russia (i). In the case of bills drawn in a place using one style, and payable in a place using another, if drawn payable at a certain period after date, they fall due as they would have done in the country in which they were drawn. Thus, a bill drawn Feb. 1, in London, on St. Petersburg, at one month, would be payable, without the days of grace, on March 1, in our calendar; and, as it was drawn on Jan. 21, old style, it would fall due on Feb. 21, in the Russian calendar. But, if the bill were drawn payable at a day certain, or at a certain period after sight, the time must then be reckoned according to the style of the place on which it is drawn (k). Days of grace are so called, because they were formerly allowed the drawee as a favour: they were entirely abolished by the French Code (1), and by most, if not all, of the ', (e) Code, s. 14 (2) and (3); Campbell v. French, 6 T. R. 200; 3 R. R. 154; Coleman v. Sayer, 1 Barnard. 303. After sight on a bill, means after acceptance; but on a note it means that the note must again be exhibited to the maker before he can be called on to pay. Holmes v. Kerrison, 2 Taunt. 323; 11 R. R. 594. As to undated bills, sce Code, s. 12; ante, p. 90. (f) Code, s. 14 (4). So in Acts of Parliament passed since 1850, 13 & 14 Vict. c. 21, s. 4. Migotti v. Colvill, L. R., 4 C. P. D. 233. (1) Code, s. 72 (5). () Marius, 93. (i) Bayley, 201. (k) Beawes, 444; Bayley, 202. (1) Tous délais de grâce, de XVII. various European Codes since framed, more or less, on that CHAPTER model, and now, with the exception possibly of Russia (m), exist among the English-speaking races only. grace A presentment for payment before the last day of is premature, and will not enable the holder to charge the antecedent parties (n). Days of grace are allowed on promissory notes as well as on bills (o). They are allowed, whether the bill or note be made payable on a certain event, or at a certain day (p), or at a certain number of years, months, weeks, or days, after date or after sight, or at usance, or by instalments (q). But they are not allowed on bills or notes payable on demand (). Whether days of grace were at common law allowed on bills payable at sight, was undecided. The weight of authority had been considered to incline in favour of such an allowance (s); but now, since 34 & 35 Vict. c. 74, ss. 2, 4 (repealed), bills and notes drawn after August 14th, 1871, payable at sight or on presentation, are payable on demand, and therefore no days of grace are allowed, and Code, ss. 10 and 14 are to the same effect. We have already seen that the time which bills payable after sight have to run is computed from the date of the acceptance (t); a note payable at a certain period after sight is payable at that period after presentment for sight (u). So, if some time after a refusal to accept, a bill payable after sight be accepted, supra protest, the time is calculated, faveur, d'usage, ou d'habitude locale pour le paiement de lettres de change, sont abrogés." Code de Commerce, liv. i. tit. 8, art. 135. (m) In which country a Code is said to be in preparation. The days of grace (if still existing) are at St. Petersburg ten days on bills after date, or overdue, and three days on those at sight. (n) Code, s. 45 (1); Wiffen v. Roberts, 1 Esp. 261; 5 R. R. 737. (0) Brown v. Harraden, 4 T. R. 148. (p) Ibid., and SO held in America. Griffin v. Goff, 12 Johns. Rep. 423. (a) Oridge v. Sherborne, 11 M. & W. 374; Carlon v. Kenealy, 12 M. & M. 139. If the whole be payable on default of payment of any one instalment the note is (r) Bayley, 241; Code, s. 14. Beawes, 256; Kyd, 10; (t) Campbell v. French, 6 T. R. CHAPTER When presentment of bills payable on demand is to be made. General rule. not from the date of the exhibition of the bill to the drawee, but from the date of the noting for non-acceptance (x). Bills and notes payable on demand, and cheques, must be presented within a reasonable time. What is a reasonable time seems to be now a mixed question of law and fact (y), though formerly of law only. Reasonable time," says Lord Coke, "shall be adjudged by the discretion of the justices before whom the cause dependeth; and so it is of reasonable fines, customs and services, upon the true state of the case depending before them; for reasonableness in these cases belongeth to the knowledge of the law; and therefore to be decided by the justices. Quam longum esse debit non definitur in jure, sed pendet ex discretione justiciariorum. And, this being said of time, the like may be said of things incertaine, which ought to be reasonable; for nothing that is contrary to reason is consonant to law" (z). Besides, the opinions of jurors have been so various, that there can be no certainty on the subject, unless it be held to be a question of law. Yet we have seen, that what is a reasonable time within which to present for acceptance a bill drawn payable after sight has been held a question of fact for the jury, and the same point has been ruled as to the time of presentment for payment of a note payable on demand (a). A man taking a bill or note payable on demand, or a cheque, is not bound, laying aside all other business, to - present or transmit it for payment the very first opportunity. It has long since been decided, in numerous cases, that, though the party by whom the bill or note is to be paid live in the same place, it is not necessary to present the instrument for payment till the morning next after the day on which it was received (b). And later cases have established, that the holder of a cheque has the whole of the (x) Williams v. Germaine, 7 B. & C. 468; 1 M. & R. 394; 31 R. R. 248, formerly from date of acceptance for honour. But see now, Code, s. 65 (5). (y) Tindal v. Brown, 1 T. R. 168; 1 R. R. 171; Darbyshire v. Parker, 6 East, 3; 2 Smith, 195; Parker v. Gordon, 7 East, 385; 3 Smith, 358; 8 R. R. 646; Haynes v. Birks, 3 Bos. & Pul. 599; Appleton v. Sweetapple, Bayley, 6th ed. 234; 3 Dong. 137; Code, s. 45 (2) and 74. () Co. Litt. 56 b. (a) Manwaring v. Harrison, 1 Stra. 508; Hankey v. Trotman, 1 W. Bl. 1; see ante, p. 212, as to Presentment for Acceptance. (b) Ward v. Erans, 2 Ld. Raym. 928; 6 Mod. 36; Moore v. Warren, 1 Stra. 415; Fletcher v. Sandys, 2 Stra. 1248; Turner v. Mead, 1 Stra. 416; Hoar v. Da Costa, 2 Stra. 910; Appleton v. Sweetapple, Bayley, 6th ed. 234; 3 Doug. 137. banking hours of the next day within which to present it CHAPTER for payment (c). XVII. Negotiable instruments, payable on demand, may be Different distributed into several classes, and the time within which sorts of they ought to be presented for payment and the consequences of a failure to make due presentment, are not deinand. precisely the same in every class. Negotiable instruments, payable on demand, are common commercial bills of exchange, cheques, common promissory notes, bank notes, and bankers' cash notes and bankers' bills. instruments payable on payable on It is conceived that a common bill of exchange (d), pay- Of a common able on demand, ought, if the parties live in the same place, to be presented the next day after the payee has exchange received it. If the bill must be sent by post to be presented, demand. it ought to be posted on the day next after the day on which it was received, and then the person who receives it by post, that he may present it, should do so on the day next following the day on which he receives it. Such, also, are the general rules regulating the present- Of a cheque. ment of bankers' cheques, which are really bills of exchange; but, as cheques on bankers are now extremely common, it has been thought convenient to discuss the presentment of cheques more in detail in the Chapter relating to Cheques (e). on demand. A common promissory note, payable on demand, differs Of a common from a bill payable on demand, or a cheque, in this respect; promissory the bill and cheque are evidently intended to be presented note payable and paid immediately, and the drawer may have good reasons for desiring to withdraw his funds from the control of the drawee without delay; but a common promissory note (f), payable on demand, is very often originally intended as a continuing security, and afterwards indorsed as such. Indeed, it is not uncommon for the payee, and (c) Pocklington v. Sylvester, Chitty, 9th ed. 385; Robson v. Bennett, 2 Taunt, 388; 11 R. R. 614; Rickford v. Ridge, 2 Camp. 537; Moule v. Brown, 4 Bing. N.C. 266; 5 Sco. 694; Hare v. Henty, 30 L. J., C. P. 302. Next day must now mean next business day. (d) The rule may be otherwise in respect of paper intended for circulation, and some descriptions (e) Ante, Chapter III. on (f) Brooks v. Mitchell, 9 M. & W. 15; Code. ss. 83 and 86. CHAPTER XVII. Of a bank note and bankers' cash note. afterwards for the indorsee, to receive from the maker Bank notes and bankers' cash notes differ again from other promissory notes in this, that they are intended to pass from hand to hand, and are issued that they may circulate as money, returning to the bank as seldom as possible; but they are not intended as a continuing security in the hands of any one holder. Therefore, a man who takes bank notes or bankers' cash notes in payment must present them (h), or forward them for presentment, the day after he receives them, in order to enable him, in the event of the bank failing, to sue the person from whom they were received on the consideration that was given for them (i). But, as it would be inconsistent with the very nature and design of such notes, that every man who takes them should present them for payment, it is sufficient to exonerate the taker from the charge of laches, if he circulated them within the time within which he ought otherwise to have presented them (k). And without circulating them, it should seem that, if according to the course of business it be usual to retain such notes a reasonable time, that may be an excuse for omitting instant presentment (1). Moreover, the transmission of notes payable to bearer being attended with risk, the sender will, it seems, be allowed to cut the notes in halves, and send one set of halves on the next day, and one set the day after, or to send one set by coach and one |