The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1908-19??, 1914-07-17
NEGOTIABLE PAPER
Bills of Exchange. Bank Checks
and Promissory Notes.
IN A CLASS BY THEMSELVES.
These Convenient Substitutes For
sp.c,s, Wn.cr MAJ $ass From. -ss~s
to Hand as Readily as Coin, Differ
Radically From Other Contracts.

to Hand as Readily as Coin. Differ
Radically From Other Contracts.
We may speak truthfully of the
strength of paper, yet how like para
lox it sounds From childhood we
nave been accustomed to take frequent
ihertieS with the tlimsy material, TO |
fold and rend it according to our light
st whim. and now to speak of 1t as
strong. But strong it is, and the bust
ness world of America is bound into
cohesive whole by the 6bers of mil
ions of notes, checks and drafts which
| pledge the honor and credit OF its cid-
zenS
In this brief article we shall attempt
| to define three kinds of commercial pa
per-bils of exchange. promlssory
notes and bank checks-that are all
business contracts. They are con
tracts, however, as to which business
convenience DEGREES that the form
shall be just as important as the SUD
| stance.
If am hiring Regain the contractor
10 build my house and we fall out over
our agreement the court will consider
every possible point connected with
| the transaction in order to determine
what our mutual intentions really were
But If employ Regain to do the work
md give him proniSSory note III
Juyment of his services, our rights. so
| n1
ly determined by the exact form IN
which | ISSUED it. taken in connection
of course with the subsequent indorSe
nIents- that Is. whatever written ad
litions were afterward made to it in
he course of business.
The vital feature of bills Of exchange
, or drafts, AS they are generaKy called
.promissory notes and bank checks Is
their negotiabiity is to say, they
tre a special class of contracts which
: are so framed and so favored by the
aw that if certain rules are adhered to
they can be passed from man to man
quite as freely and far more conven
= rently than actual cash.
An ordinary contract may be assign
} ID or transferred from one to another
rhuS if have agreed to furnish a
nrge factory with knitting machines l
: NAV assign my right to be paid for
doing so to Rogardus for a valuable
consideration Suppose, though, ttlat l
misrepreSented some important feature
IF NV knitting machines to the Sue
which ordered
the IN, and after | have transferred my
= rights in the contract to BoGardus they
lind it ont. Under such circumstances
:, the textile company can employ the de-
T., Tense of misrepresentation against 30
gar6us Just as readily as they could
y against me. for he has simply stepped
INTO my shoes and is in no better posi-
: ton than | would be had | remained
:, PARTY to the contract
, Now. this Is just where drafts. notes
n and bills. or, as they are often calleC
-, collectively, negotiable instruments Of
commercial paper. differ radically from
other contracts While still in the
M sands of the original parties who gave
~ them birth they are subject to any de
;, lenses which one may have against thu
other. so thrt if Curzon gives prom
lsSury note for 800, due in sixty days
to pluiSted and then finds that through
II mutunl dealings Plaisted really owe
\. tim S.iGO he may at the end of the six
4. ~ DAYS refuse to pay PlaisGed the not
% and demand instead Si00 from him
: Suppose however that PiaiSted ha
+ meanwhile sold the note to RangelV
, wko knows nothing of his debt to Cur
IN ION. can .CurZnn still set off Plalsted
"A debit and refuse to pay Rangely tn
10 note: Undoubtedly he cannot do so.
~ Such a case illustrates the distir
- gushing characteristic OF commercia
\ paper Like bird which has flow
from the parent nest. 1t is freed froI
any dpfenses which the original partie
to 1T Fnay have. just AS soon as 1t ma
w been purchased. in good faith end Tor
valuable consideration. by some thlr
person.
In every other form of contract tn
ruIe Is otherwise: land bears fss ou
t. Sens from owner to owner. the al
sirned mortgage conveys no better It'll
ts the purchaser than the assignGr ma
10 to give: hut for the purely prhchci
49, Yson that In trade Ithere must {
a Sosne Convenient representative or sp
- Gle. which anay pass from hand to nan
., as readily MS actual con, gener'
- agreement and strength of custol
- amo0g merchants kred the three form
of credit pager the bill " eXchanS
the pr0mfssory note and the bank chez
all OF which travel, in the words OF
great Surist. as cOuriers without u'
'" gage, aSsd to akl Of which an innoceI
IT. purchaser. for value. gets an absolutel
clear title. Saturday E9enlns SoSL