New-York tribune., 1891-05-03
FROM BENCH AND BAR.
GATHERED FROM LAWYERS AND AMONG
THE COURTS.

the Bank Of the State Of New York Is OF the utmost
Importance TO the banking community ana tiie pre-
cedng steps in the litigation have been alscusseu
Freely In law and banking journals. The SUIT aiose
out Of the forgeres Of james F. Bede the real estate
clerk of the law firm OF Shpman, Barlow Larocque
& Choate Tempted to dishonesty by love OF policy
playing he forged mortgages and secured large sums OF
money on checks sone OF which were payable 10 ces
OF the firm and Others to fictitious persons. Inc
signatures TO the checks were genuine as the members
Of the firm signed the checks presented TO them by
Bedell without investigation. The Endorsements on
the checks were forged by Bedel. The decisions Oh
courts have been that the banks usually held re-
sponsibe for the detection of forged signatures, and
the loss from forgeres usually falls upon the banks
In this case however the lawyers for the bank thougt
that they peculiar features which made IL wise
to contest the matter when suit brought by the
firm of lawyers to recover the amounts paid on the
forged Endorsements. The lawyers had promPgeiyI SnPg.iI
had received a sentence of twenty-five years, i'm,
% T9e banks @ noS Sn lsrecn s @ in
Bedel carry his forgeries without any inquiries
SnS Ts M m ye d tho S ree ne
counsel for shpman, Barlow, Larocque Choae and The
Bank Of Of the state Of New York will be compelled TO
pay nearly quarter Of million dollars, but the
bank will In its turn various banks tfrough which
the checks bearing forged Endorsements passed, ana
endeavor 70 make them bear part OF the RESPONSE
bility for falling to detect the forseries
An obstacle which Messrs. Root & Clarke, the coun
sci for the law firm, had to meet In the litigation
against tie Bank Of the State Of NcwIork was the
decision in the British House OF Lords in the vaglitno
case which was decided after the General Term OF the
Supreme Court Lad considered the shDman case. The
vagano case excited much discussion in England.
The plaintiff vagliano carried on an enormous busi-
ness as merchant and foreign banker and had large
dealings with the Bank OF England. in 1896 Tor ex-
ample 60, 100000 was paid cut on the account Vi
Vagllano. The merchant had a clerk named GlKs' WHO
in 1887 forged letters o advice and bills Of exchange
purportng to be drawn by an Odessa merchant Inc
bills Of exchange were presented in the usual way 70
yaeIiano who accepted them. eliza would then forge
the Endorsement Of the person in whose fav0 the ols
were drawn. The case had a peculiar likeness 10 thc
shlpman case GlIa Ike Bedell. secured over quar-
ter Of million dollars BY his Srs9s "d saSenees Sna es
TO a long tenn Of imprisonment: ihe slgnaluies ~. ~
the acccptapces IN one case ana INT cecns eEe1 !" s
was begun in each by the employer aSalhst @ @thc
bank and in each the defence OF negligence OF -
empoyer I'm falling 10 I'm supervising the cierf
was relied on The English Ccurt OF Appeal, the
highest purely judicial tribunal, decided against the
Bank of England. and not until the House OF LWes
was reached was the responsibility OF the MERCHANT Tor
negligence in his business methods hcld smhcleho ~
naturally WIS largely relied upon by the counsel for
thc Bank Of tho state Of New York In the snipmMah
case Inf Messrs Root and Clarke met the Issue boldly
They caused to be pcnted for the OF the Court OF
Appeals judges bulky volume, containing the opln,,
ions Of al the Judges & VINO hs s9 V,amo al esse Most Of
the opinions were favorable to the paintG M Ie Jaw Jaw
yer also pTpaSd s Sc and p'a dsncons drawn be-
tween it and The shpman case the iavoos Go 20 tRel
ion Of the Court Of Appeals may be IN part que 10 e
careful analysis Of the English case
Homer A. Nelson, whose death was announced last
week. was known politically as resident OF DutcheSS
Comfy but his legal practice was largely carreu D"
In this city, lie was an active and tenacious advo
I,a nd
in many important cases, but was more acuVo Ill
earlier years Than he had been recently Ills service
nc County Judge Congressman and state senator kept
him before the public and he had considerable popu
the 3roiossion was as chairman OF the Judiciary Com
mittee In the senate The Illness OF David Dudley
Field has caused some unesSnTcSt @ nrStcsSan HH"S His
work in legal authorship has been so lmporGht u 10
the % time on anf h ne hs death Even
age he has already attained would seem unumey'
The Banking Law journal" publishes this month
ror+roits of 7. Edward Simmons of the Fourth Ma
tonal Rank and w. L. Strong, Of the Central Natonai
rank IN the series Of biographical notices OF bank
nresidcnts which 1t has begun. The text accompany
ing the portraits contains simple record OF the careers
of these wellmOwn New-iorkers "Ihe BANNING
Law Journal" has criticised the tendency 10 hold Dahhs
csponsibe for losses by forgeres and 1t heartily ap
nroves a bill which James W. Hustled introduced In
thc last Assembly II provided that when check IS
nad O in good faith and in the ordinary course Of bus
ness It Is not incumbent on the bark 70 no" . S .
transverse lines on checks by which to Distinguish
checks or drafts payable to bank, ana ior suGn n
chocts the bank would not incur any liability 10 nc
trne owner of the check If the customer had no Tue
or defective title The burden Of banks In bearing
~ detection Is deeply felt by the institutions
Gut the courts hold them to strict accouhtaoll'S'
The Georgia Supreme Court recently paid hlsh
commitment TO one Of its subordinatcs. suit was
before il in which n postal clerk was injured IN a
railway accident lie recovered verdict OF Sll'ooo
against the railway company, and among the eVdehce
which the trial Judge allowed 10 90 to the Jury was
testimony that vacancies occurred IN the kau"ay NAN
service soon after the accident that the Injured
clcrl, wond probably have been promoted from inc
81 so class to the 81 800 class. This testimony was
spnnosed 10 be a guide To the Jurors In determining
te value Of the young mans services TO his family.
Tho eun,eme Court decided that the testimony was
inadmissible. The opinion continues: me depu'y
clerk of the court, for example, is very eihceht ana
faithful and there should be vacancy IN tie ONCE
NJ cerk of the court il not only possible Dut very
nrobobie that he would be appointed to III the vacancy
thereby obtaining much larger salary ,ht & no III" th
receives but If he should be ea lSe nS oompany
Tor damages do not think that IL wOuu hU a., .ons
peten for him 10 prove the possDy Or nn'cc of
His appointment 10 I'll vacancy ~ thc onico ~ ~
clerk especially as the personnel Of this conrd upon i
winch such time scnnT %"1 dRS@d cRer mns have been
tn,
esrneStly deslrons that there should not be any I'M
mediate change among the judges.
A recent decision Of the Wisconsin Supreme Court
made necessary third trial Of peculiar SUIT ior
damages. John Mlnaghan, June IA, 1887, married
his second wife. on, the night OF June 10 NUMBER
nj ucn and boys surrounded his house ana cngagcd III
a - cbariyars including much noise and disorder The
same socaled sport" repeated on June % ana
June o5 Mr.. Niinaghan was by that time naturally
disgusted and he fired shotgun into the crowd III
turing the leg Of John Higgins one Of the participants
in tie serenade Higgins began suit for damages ior
the injury 10 his leg and twice recovcrea Judgment
In reversing the last Judgment the court criticised tho
act,op of fo trial court in allowing the lawyers 20 ask
nrosncctve inrymen whether they had any prejudice
ppcoipst cLarivod parties The supreme Court heid
ss. a. u gnod citizens must condemn such unlawful
snH riotJls assemblies and that the jurors must bc