Case Name: Rounsavel v. Scholfield
Court: United States Circuit Court of the District of Columbia
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1817-04
Citations: 2 Cranch 139
Docket Number: 
Parties: Rounsavel v. Scholfield.
Judges: (Thruston, J., absent,)
Reporter: Reports of cases argued and determined in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia (District of Columbia - reported by Mackey)
Volume: 2
Pages: 139–140

Head Matter:
Rounsavel v. Scholfield.
The person who knowingly takes a dishonored cheek payable to bearer, takes it subject to the drawer’s equity against the person from whom he received it.
If the holder, at the time of his taking the check, knew that the person who gave it to him, had no right to give it, he cannot recover against the drawer.
Assumpsit, for money had and received.
The plaintiff offered in evidence, a check drawn by the defend ant upon the Union Bank, payable to B. Baden, or bearer, which, having been the property of the Merchants Bank, was delivered to the plaintiff by the cashier of that bank, for value received.
Mr. Swann and Mr. Mason, for the defendant,
offered evidence to prove, that the cashier of the Merchants Bank had no authority to deliver the check to the plaintiff, and that while it was the property of that bank, the defendant had offered to take it up and pay it in their own paper, which the cashier refused. That the plaintiff, when he received it, knew that it had been dishonored by the Union Bank, on which it was drawn.

Opinion:
Whereupon
the Qourt
(Thruston, J., absent,)
upon the motion of the defendant's counsel, instructed the jury that if they should be satisfied by the evidence that the plaintiff, when he received the check, knew that the cashier of the Merchants Bank had no right to transfer it, he could not recover in this suit, and that if the plaintiff, when he took the check, knew that it had been dishonored by the bank on which it was drawn, he took it liable to all the equitable and legal defence which the defendant then had against the Merchants Bank.