Case Name: Thomas Griffin, appellant, vs. Jesse Nokes, appellee
Court: Superior Court of the Territory of Arkansas
Jurisdiction: Arkansas
Decision Date: 1829-04
Citations: 1 Ark. Terr. Rep. 72
Docket Number: 
Parties: Thomas Griffin, appellant, vs. Jesse Nokes, appellee.
Judges: Eskridge, J., concurred.
Reporter: Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the United States Superior Court for the Territory of Arkansas, from 1820 to 1836
Volume: 1
Pages: 72–72

Head Matter:
Thomas Griffin, appellant, vs. Jesse Nokes, appellee.
A due bill not payable to order or bearer, is assignable, and may be assigned by an agent.
April, 1829.
— Appeal from the Crawford Circuit Court, determined before Benjamin Johnson and Thomas P. Eskridge, judges.

Opinion:
Johnson, J.,
delivered the opinion of the Court.— The first question is, whether a due bill not payable to order or bearer is assignable. We have no doubt that a due bill is embraced by the words of the statute, " bonds, bills, and promissory notes." Geyer's Digest, 66. The second question is, whether a due bill can be assigned by an agent. Of this we have no doubt, and consider it too clear to require reasoning. Kyd on Bills, 33; Chitty on Bills, 198; Pothier on Obligations, 74, 448.
Eskridge, J., concurred.
Judgment affirmed.
Story on Bills, 76 ; Bayley on Bills, 69 to 74. But this must be done in the name of the principal, otherwise the agent will be held personally liable. To bind the principal and exonerate himself, he should regularly sign thus : " A. B. (principal) by C. D., his agent"or " attorney," as the case may be, or what is less exact, "but would suffice, " C. D. for A. B." Story on Bills, 76, 77 ; Story on Agency, 153, In commercial and maritime contracts to promote public policy and encourage trade, if it can on the whole instrument be collected that the object is to bind the principal, and not the agent, courts of justice will adopt that construction of it, however loosely or informally expressed. Story on Agency, 154.