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Matched Legal Cases: ['art. 4', 'art. 2', 'art. 4', 'art.\n5', 'art. 8', 'art. 33', 'art. 3', 'art. 3', 'art. 70', 'art. 25', 'art. 58', 'art. 59']

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THE SPECIAL LAw ON CHECKS
Differentiation. In the Anglo-American enactments the
check is defined as a bill of exchange drawn on a bank
payable on demand. 1 What particular elements this variety
of a bill of exchange does have, is relegated to the background, but they are not insignificant. 2 The Continental
laws, developing the check more recently, and then rapidly,
instituted an "autonomous" type of commercial paper. It
is now regulated separately in the Geneva Convention of
I 93 I, though supplemented by national legal rules of the
member states, and in many special statutes in other countries. The authors of the Convention, however, were
anxious to preserve as much analogy as feasible to the
Convention on Bills and Notes of I930.
Whereas the long preparation of the prior treaty was
largely inspired by the hope for accession of the commonlaw countries, no illusion in this respect remained in I93 1. 4
The effort became a purely European compromise. Even
so, three main systems were to be reconciled, the French,
German, and Italian. Considering the fundamental divergencies then existing, the unification was hailed as a conspic1
BEA s. 73; NILs. 185.
See the enumeration in 10 C.J.S. 412 and Supp. 1953.
3 Convention portant loi uniforme sur Ies cheques, Geneva, March 1931.
5 HUDSON, Intern. Legis!. 889 No. 283 (hereafter called Geneva Check
Convention) ; Convention destinee a regler certains con flits de lois en matiere
de cheques, Geneva, March 19, 1931, 5 HUDSON, id. 915 No. 284. (hereafter
called Geneva Rules.)
4 MossA, Check 86.
uous progress, although the 57 sections are incomplete and
variegated by 3 I reservation clauses, all of which have
been used, some by all or almost all member states. 5 The
law of checks was called at the Hague in 1912 "un enfant
de Boheme" and in Geneva in 1931 "un enfant terrible." 6
Among the differences between checks and bills of exchange, two are outstanding: checks enjoy total or partial
exemption from the tax imposed on bills, and the time for
presentment and for suing is much shorter. Conflicts law,
moreover, is strongly influenced by the importance of the
banking institution and bank collection tying the check to
the individual bank visible on the face of the paper; no
such drastic connection is afforded by similar negotiable
Also, the conflicts rules of the Bills of Exchange Act and
those of the American courts on bills and notes pretend to
include checks, although the peculiar nature of these instruments evidently demands some distinction. The Geneva
Check Convention is accompanied by a convention on conflict rules, which shows even more improvisation than its
counterpart concerning bills and notes, and has unhesitatingly adopted the latter's controversial rules on capacity,
form (with one meritorious addition), and "effects," as
well as the time for suing in recourse. A gratifying part
will be found in article 7, which puts a series of incidents
uniformly under the law of the place where the check IS
5 See the table in HAMEL ET ANCEL, La convention de Geneve sur
!'unification du droit du cheque, ( 1937). HAMEL, 1 Banques 85 703 considers as a reservation art. 4 par. 3 of the Check Convention (allowing a
member state to validate obligations between its nationals contracted abroad
in the form of the national law); hence, this paragraph not mentioned in
the reservations used by France has no effect. The contrary opinion of z
PERCEROU ET BOUTERON 177 n. 3 seems Jess well-founded.
GIANNINI, Sistema 354
In the other countries, the European controversies are
United States. If the conflicts rules concerning bills of
exchange largely suffer from uncertainty, an additional
grievous complication centers on the question whether there
are modifications of these rules with respect to checks. In
the most important jurisdiction, New York, the views
have changed. In Hibernia National Bank v. Lacombe,
the Court of Appeals declared in a case involving a check
that the nature, validity, interpretation, and effect of the
instrument were governed by the law of the place of payment.7 Amsinck v. Rogers, establishing a scheme of division between the topics pertaining to the inception of negotiable instruments and the incidents of performance (payment), drew a line of distinction between bills and checks.
The Hibernia decision was explained on the general principle of lex loci contractus, because the drawer of a bill of
exchange undertakes to pay at the place of drawing, and
the drawer of a check contracts to pay at the place of payment.8 Finally, in Swift & Co. v. Banker's Trust Co., the
court in I 9 3 9 overruled the distinction, assuming that the
Negotiable Instruments Act establishes a uniform law in
which the obligations of a drawer of a check or a bill of
exchange payable at demand are identical, and hence also
the conflicts rules are common. Thus, the validity and
effect of the drawer's contract should be governed by the
law of the place of contracting. A check drawn in Chicago
to a fictitious person upon a bank in New York through
fraud of an employee of the drawing firm, was held to
be a check payable to the bearer under an Illinois statute
of I 93 I and correctly paid by the New York bank; under
the Negotiable Instruments Act, adopted in New Y ark,
84 N.Y. 367.
189 N.Y. 252, 257.
the result would have been contrary. 9 This cannot be the
Authority in the other American jurisdictions remains
thoroughly divided. 10
Function. The check is contrasted with bills of exchange
as serving payment while bills are instruments of credit
and financing. With the actual low stand of private international credit operations, hoped to be temporary, the
check has made an enormous advance and, at present, may
sometimes replace commercial drafts or promissory notes in
their own field; certainly it is often used as security. Nevertheless, the statutes and the regulations by bank accords
and most standard conditions are intended for instruments
essentially contemplating payment. In the United States,
the banks handle daily an estimated number of 35 millions
of checks mainly in the service of collection for payment. 11
By another functional restriction, checks in some parts
of the world are more or less strictly regarded as local
paper. At one time, it was specially noted in Latin America
that Cuba and San Salvador permitted international circulation.12
Conflicts. The contrasts between the Geneva uniform
check law and the Anglo-American statutes have been repeatedly described in detail, notably by Feller. 13
Conflicts of laws relating to this subject are bound to
Swift & Co. v. Banker's Trust Co. ( 1939) z8o N.Y. 135, 144, 19 N.E.
(zd) 993 Whilst usually the local law of a bank is emphasized, here a
bank is discharged for the reason that at the place of issue the check was
payable to bearer, depending on the fraudulent act of an employee of the
drawer, unknown to both parties.
10 See 10 C.J.S., Supp. 1953, Bills and Notes 48.
MALCOLM, "Article 4, A Battle with Complexity," Wise. L. Rev. (195Z)
z65, z7o and additional information by Mr. Malcolm.
12 ARGANA 3Z.
13 FELLER, "The International Unification of Laws Concerning Checks," 45
Harv. L. Rev. ( 193Z) 668. On the fundamental differences from English
law, see GUTTERIDGE in Z PERCEROU ET BOUTERON zzz.
occur in increasing numbers, but for one reason or another,
they very seldom reach the courts. The Conference of
I 93 I diligently tried to obtain progress over the preparatory drafts and succeeded in clarifying at least those questions most troublesome in international circulation. Such
topics were revocation (stop payment), provision (cover),
time for presentment, and prescription (time for suing).
The Rules of Geneva transcend this subject matter, although they leave much open to doubt.
The habitual neglect of the conflicts rules by the lawmakers has produced doubts even with respect to the scope
of application of the Geneva Rules. Although Germany
has adopted them with the Convention in a new domestic
law, and Italy now has clearly two different laws for the
member states and other states, in France it is controversial whether the ratified Geneva Conflicts Rules are
general or intended for the member states. 14
A number of provisions are closely shaped after the
model of the conflicts rules on bills and notes; they involve
capacity (art. 2), form (art. 4), effects of obligations (art.
5), and form of protest (art. 8). Little will have to be
added in these respects to the remarks made in the foregoing chapters.
The Rules have established a list of problems specially
assigned to the law of the place of payment:
"Article 7 The law of the country in which the cheque
is payable shall determine:
( I ) Whether a cheque must necessarily be payable at
sight or whether it can be drawn payable at a fixed period
after sight, and also what the effects are of the post-dating
of a cheque;
( 2) The limit of time for presentment;
14 For general application because France has not restricted the ratification
of the Convention, HAMEL, Banques Suppl. 84 700; contra z PERCEROU ET
BOUTERON 171 196.
( 3) Whether a cheque can be accepted, certified, confirmed or visaed, and what the effects are respectively of
such acceptance, certification, confirmation or visa;
( 4) Whether the holder may demand, and whether he
is bound to accept, partial payment;
( 5) Whether a cheque can be crossed or marked either
with the words 'payable in account' or with some equivalent
expression, and what the effects are of such crossing or of
the words 'payable in account' or any equivalent expression;
( 6) Whether the holder has special rights to the cover
and what the nature is of these rights;
( 7) Whether the drawer may countermand payment of
a cheque or take proceedings to stop its payment ( opposition);
( 8) The measures to be taken in case of loss or theft
( 9) Whether a protest or any equivalent declaration is
necessary in order to preserve the right of recourse against
the endorsers, the drawer and the other parties liable."
The solutions given to the most troublesome questions
will be reviewed presently.
r. Form. Article 4 of the Geneva Check Rules reproduces the obnoxious disunity left in the Rules on bills concerning form, but adds a salutary relief (paragraph r,
i.f.) : "Where the form of the place of the signature is
not observed, it shall be sufficient if the forms prescribed
by the law of payment are observed."
2. Capacity of Drawer. Article 2 of the Rules, organized after the model of the analogous rule concerning bills,
results in the principle that the national law of the drawer
at the time of the signature determines his capacity of contracting in general and drawing checks in particular, while
subsequent death or insanity is immaterial (Check Conv.
art. 33). In the American practice, capacity is governed
by the law of the place of delivery; and if capacity existent
at the time ceases subsequently as the Bill of Exchange Act
states in case of the drawer's death, a respective notice to
the bank ends its authority to pay. 15 In conflict the law
of the place of payment should decide (infra III 2).
3 Capacity of Drawee, "Passive check capacity." The
legal definition of a check in the Anglo-American Acts requires drawing on a banker. This is also the law of
Austria, Germany, and the Scandinavian countries and the
declared aim of article 3 of the Check Convention; but
subjected to a strong restriction:
"A cheque must be drawn on a banker holding funds at
the disposal of the drawer and in conformity with an
agreement, express or implied, whereby the drawer is entitled to dispose of those funds by cheque. Nevertheless,
if these provisions are not complied with, the instrument
is still valid as a cheque."
The statement of the principle was thus deprived of any
sanction, in order to satisfy the countries where either a
check could be drawn on anybody, as was then the law in
France, or on institutions assimilated to bankers, as the
French law is now. 16 A reservation, No. 4, allows striking out the "nevertheless" sentence or extending the category of capable drawees. Both these privileges have been
utilized, and in some statutes it now seems doubtful whether
a check on a nonbanker is considered a bill of exchange, as
in the United States, or radically void.
The article proceeds to uphold in any case the obligations arising out of the signatures affixed in countries whose
laws permit drawing on persons such as the drawee.
BEA sec. 75, and see FELLER, 45 Harv. L. Rev. 686.
France: Decree Law, October 30, 1935, art. 3 amended by Law, Feb. 14,
In view of these differences, article 3 of the Check Rules
"The law of the country in which the cheque is payable
determines the persons on whom a cheque may be drawn."
The Convention would certainly have done better either
to adopt the entire common-law rule or to exclude any
reservation for nullity as check or nullity altogether. 17
Fiscal interests have played an excessive role in the question.
The Italian statutes recognize as checks instruments
issued and payable in a foreign country only where the
drawee has passive check capacity in that country ;18 but
these are valid anyway under the Geneva Rules, article 3
The principal conflicts rule with its choice of the law
of the place of payment is clearly adequate; the check being concentrated upon the right of the drawer to draw
upon the specific drawee, his quality has to be determined
by his own law. When, before the Convention, a check
drawn in Austria on a nonbanker in Paris was a check in
France, it was no check in Austria. 19
Illustrations. (i) A check is drawn in New York on
the Credit Municipal de Bordeaux recognized in France
as assimilated to banks. Under Geneva Rule 3, the check
is valid in France and under Geneva Convention, article
3, likewise in Germany. In an American court the law
of the place of issue would result in invalidity as check,
that of the place of payment in validity, and the latter
should be preferred, despite the New York Court of
( ii) Vice versa, where a check is drawn in Paris on an
American stock exchange broker, American indorsers would
be liable under the law of bills of exchange in most Con17
For the latter method MossA, Check 140.
Italy: RD., Dec. 21, 1933, art. 3, par. 1, criticized as immaterial by MossA
I.e. 141. The German Check Law 25 contained an exception for checks
payable abroad which made sense in face of a lex loci contractus.
STROBELE 91,
tinental and American courts. But what would be the
French solution? It would seem that article 3 of the French
Check Law means only French, not foreign agents de
change and courtiers en valeurs mobilieres, and the instrument would not be considered a check. Yet according to
an official Instruction concerning the stamp duty, 20 the reasoning of which goes beyond the stamp question, it is fatal
that the instrument does not bear the name "lettre de
change," wherefore it would not be treated as a negotiable
CovER AND SToP PAYMENT
I. Cover. The most dreaded of all obstacles to unification of the law of negotiable instruments has a particular
aspect in the law of checks; the existence of cover is the
avowed requirement even in those countries that do not believe in the tacit transfer of cover by the creation of cambial
rights. The requirement, it is true, is subject in the Check
Convention of Geneva to degrees of seriousness depending
upon the quality of the drawee as banker. The Check
Rules, article 7 (b), call for the law of the country in
which the check is payable, to determine:
"Whether the holder has special rights to the cover and
what the nature is of these rights."
This rule, quite contrary to the Rules concerning bills
and notes, which declare for the law of the issue, was generally recommended. 21 As justification, it was alleged that
a check is drawn on the basis of a credit the amount of
which is not identical with the sum of the check; that the
banks must pay it immediately in the course of large business and there is no time to study various foreign laws;
Instruction No. 4228 de Ia Direction generale de !'Enregistrement, etc.,
Dec. z, 1935, Z PERCEROU ET BOUTERON z68.
HIRSCH, Provision 154; STROBELE 95; the commissions of experts, the
Institute of Int. Law, 33 III Annuaire z68, Z77 The French writers are
inclined to this solution against Cass. (Feb. 6, 1900) S. I900.I.I6I.
and, above all, that subsequent insolvency of a drawer or
his order of stop payment, subject to a foreign law, ought
not to disturb a banker, at a place where the underlying
claim of the drawer is deemed to have been transferred to
the payee and the holder. 22
Illustration. A check drawn in New York on a bank in
Paris is presented by the holder at a time when the drawer
had become a bankrupt. While an American bank knowing
this would refuse payment, the Paris bank must pay the
holder in his quality as assignee of the cover to the extent
of the sum payable on the check. The Mixed Arbitral
Tribunal between Belgium and Germany decided by the
same test of lex loci solutionis that a Belgian plaintiff had
no claim in the clearing against a German bank according to
the German law, ignoring the doctrine of cover. 23
Specific party agreements for the assignment of cover
are to be distinguished in principle. They are frequent in
Germany as well as in the United States when banks discount a negotiable instrument in security transactions. On
the other hand, certification of a check by a bank is considered assignment of the funds to the amount of the
check. 24 It would seem that despite the theoretical difference from the French type, the applicable law should always be that of the bank.
2. Stop Payment. Common law and civil law are in sharp
disagreement not only concerning the effect of death and
bankruptcy of the drawer of a check on the right of the
holder, but also on revocability. At common law the order
22 PERCEROU and MARKS VON WURTTEMBERG in the Conference, see
BOUTERON, Statut 705 ff.
23 TAM Germano-Belge (Jan. I, 1929) 8 Receuil Trib. Arb. M. 791.
The point was separate from the added fact that there cover was never
Comm. Credit Corp. v. Orange County (1950) 34 Cal. (2d) 766, 214
Pac. (zd) 319; cf. New York L. 1944 c. 537 325; 37 McKinney's Cons. L.
Ann., 325a, forbidding stop order; Natl. City Bank of Cleveland v.
Erskine (N.Y. 1953) IIO N.E. (zd) soS.
to pay may be countermanded at pleasure, 25 though there
may be liability in the internal relations. Evidently the
revocation also ends the authority of the holder to receive,
which traditionally, though no longer correctly, is regarded
as an authority of agency. For the draftsmen of the
Geneva Convention it was a matter of course that a check
creates irrevocable relations.
The Convention left additional differences among its own
members. The principle is that revocation of a check is
not effective until the time of presentment has expired
(article 3 2, paragraph I). But by exercising Reservation
No. I6, a majority of the states have prohibited revocation even after the time for presentment ends. Conflicts
Rule, article 7, no. 7, conveniently makes this question depend on the law of the place of payment. Partly it has
been perceived that the three problems of cover, subsequent incapacity of the drawer, and stop payment, are
closely connected 26 and ought to be subject to the law of
If the authorization of the bank to pay is emphasized
over that of the payee or holder to receive, the same test
will be applied in England and, we hope, also in an American court.
Illustrations. (i) A check drawn in Chicago on a bank
in Hamburg, Germany, is countermanded before payment;
under German law the stopping is immaterial, even after
the time of presentment expires; under American law it
BEA sec. 75 and for the United States, BRADY, Bank Checks 206. It
is interesting that the New York surrogate decision, In re Mason's Estate
(I948) I94 Misc. 308, 86 N.Y.S. (2d) 232, likewise does not hesitate to
apply lex loci solutionis in the case of an Italian check upon a New York
bank. The drawer died before the bank paid the check, but the bank did
not know it. The court resorted to the customary New York rule as laid
down in Glenn an v. Rochester Trust and Safe Deposit Co. ( I 9 I 3) 209
N.Y. 12.
MossA, Check 3I8.
would be effective. The German law should be applied.
In the case of a German check on an American bank, revocation should be allowed.
(ii) A check drawn in Paris upon a bank in New York
is revoked. This has consequences not only in the United
States but also in France. In France, the drawer is exempt from the heavy penalties of French criminal law, as
stop payment may be considered outright crooked. 27 In
the United States, New York law has been applied without
hesitation, where an Italian drawer died before the check
upon a New York bank was cashed, although in the same
breath the Surrogate referred to the applicability of the
law of the place of contracting to checks. 28 In fact, the
lex loci solutionis was competent.
3 Restriction to Specific H alders. The Geneva Convention made a compromise between the English "general"
and "special" crossing of checks which was adopted in
France, Italy, and other countries, and the German and
Austrian clause "payable in account" ( nur zur J7 errechnung,
a porter en compte). The Convention finished a considerable debate by permitting and regulating both types itself
and opening a large choice to the state laws (articles 3739). Where a country allows only crossing, a check carrying the other clause is construed as a crossed check, and
vice versa (Reservation No. 18). The Conflict Rules
(article 7, No. 5) add that the law of the place of payment decides which clause is admissible and what its effect is.
Illustration. The drawer in London crosses a check on
a bank in Vienna with two lines not inserting any name
between them (general crossing). The check figures in
Austria, and by the Geneva Rules in all member states,
as a check payable in account. It cannot be paid in cash
to a third banker or a customer of the drawee (as under
HAMEL, I Banques Supp. 714, p. 88, d; 2 PERCEROU ET BOUTERON
185 n. 2.
In re Mason's Estate (1948) 194 Misc. 308, 86 N.Y.S. (2d) 232.
article 3 8 of the Convention) or to a banker (as under the
Bills of Exchange Act 70 ( 2)).
In England the question falls under the law of the place
where the check is first delivered; but can the transformation of the drawee's duty by his own law be ignored? There
was a long debate in the Geneva Conference on whether
during the circulation in the country of origin itself the
law of issue should determine the nature of the payment
clause. The majority rejected this exception, to give the
place of payment more importance. 29
In the United States neither type is used, since in contrast to the Geneva Convention, article 35, and the Bills
of Exchange Act, 6o, the drawee is responsible for examining the genuineness of indorsements. 30
4 Time for Action. The time for suing has been fixed at
a much shorter period in the Continental laws than for bills
of exchange. 81 The Geneva uniform check law, article 52,
allows six months after the end of the time for presentment
against the drawee and six months from reimbursement by
him or the day when he himself was sued for each endorsee.
However, under Reservation No. 25, after the expiration
of these periods actions may be based on enrichment and
against a drawer who has failed to provide cover; these
provisions have been commonly instituted. 32
The Check Rules, article 6, assign these problems to the
law of the place where the check has been created. But
interruption and suspension of the period of limitation is
left to "each state," and other states may react as they
wish. 83 In the common-law countries, the lex fori actually
690 n. 143.
Geneva Conv. on Bills of Exchange, art. 70.
France: art. 25 par. 3; Germany: art. 58; Italy: art. 59
Reservation No. 26.
FELLER (supra n. 13)
controls these incidents, though with certain references to
other laws, but whether under the Convention lex fori or
lex loci contractus, or lex loci solutionis governs, no one
That the law of the place of issue does not furnish an
adequate unitary solution, is as true as in the case of bills
of exchange. This test was simply adopted as a matter
of school tradition. 34
E.g., Italy: Cass. (March 3, 1933) Foro Italiano, 1933 I 730: check
issued by an Argentinean to the order of an Italian and payable at a branch
of the same bank in Italy: prescription according to Argentine law; Cf.
CAVAGLIERI 397
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