Court Opinion

ID: 9844306
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:00:39.395865+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:15:32.426063
License: Public Domain

Lake, J.,
dissenting: I agree with much that is said in the ma7 jority opinion, especially with the observations therein concerning the theory of implied or constructive acceptance set forth in Dawson v. Bank, 196 N.C. 134, 144 S.E. 833, and in Dawson v. Bank, 197 N.C. 499, 150 S.E. 38. I cannot agree, however, that the record in this case shows a conversion of the plaintiff’s property by the defendant bank.
It is not necessary, upon this record, to decide whether a drawee bank, paying a check in reliance upon a forged or unauthorized in-dorsement of the payee’s name, nothing else appearing, has converted property of the payee. I am inclined to doubt that the bank has done so. The contrary view is unquestionably supported by the authorities cited in the majority opinion. In that situation, the drawee bank has not paid pursuant to the order of its depositor and, therefore, has no right to charge the payment to his account; i.e., *658credit the payment upon the. bank’s indebtedness to the depositor. The debt of the depositor-drawer to the payee of the check has not been paid and the depositor-drawer must pay that debt and recover from the bank by demanding a recredit of his account with the amount of the unauthorized payment. The conversion theory adopted by the majority opinion may be a short cut to that ultimate result, but I doubt its soundness.
In my opinion, the conversion theory, even if sound in the situation above supposed, has no application here because, in the present case, the depositor-drawer accompanied Durham to the bank and said to the teller, “This man is Modern Homes Construction Company,” whereupon the drawee bank cashed the check. When the drawer of a check tells the drawee bank, “This man now standing before you is the person I intended by the name I inserted in the check as payee,” the bank, in my opinion, has the right, if not the duty, under its contract with the depositor-drawer, to pay the check to the person so identified by the depositor-drawer, whatever the true name of the person presenting the check may be. The bank, so paying the check, has the right to charge it to the depositor-drawer’s account. To the extent of the payment so made, it has performed its contract with its depositor and has done no wrong to anyone else. The present plaintiff’s right, if any, is against its debtor on its original claim against him.
The cases cited by the majority are distinguishable from the one at hand. In none of them did the depositor-drawer say to the drawee bank, “The man now presenting the check to you is the person intended by me as the payee.” In James v. Bank, 238 Ill. App. 159, cited by the majority opinion, the statement to the bank was made over the telephone. The bank’s inquiry was, “There is a man standing here who wants $1,625.00; am I to give it to him; the check reads James & Co.” The depositor-drawer’s answer was, “It will be all right to cash it.” This seems to me to be an inquiry by the bank as to the genuineness of the check and an acknowledgment by the depositor-drawer that the check is genuine. It would seem that the drawer was saying, “It will be all right to cash it if he is James & Co. — that is, its authorized agent.” On such facts, assuming the validity of the conversion theory, there is a decision by the bank to pay the check to someone other than the payee, or the order of the payee, and so the bank has converted the real payee’s property. Here, it has not done so for it has paid the precise person said by the depositor-drawer to be the real payee intended by him. Consequently, I think the judgment should be affirmed.