Sec. 801. PRESENTMENT FOR PAYMENT CONSIDERED.-The rules already considered apply both to presentment for acceptance and presentment for payment, but it is thought best to give a few principles applicable to presentment for payment at this time.

When a bill of exchange has been dishonored by nonacceptance the holder has the option to present for payment or not, except when accepted supra protest. (Read v. Adams, 6 Serg. & R. 356.) In other cases due presentment of a bill of exchange to the drawee for payment is necessary to bind the drawer and indorsers. By due presentment is meant such a presentment as regards time, place, and other circumstances as has been discussed in this chapter. The holder must demand payment according to the tenor of the bill. When payable at a determinable time it should be presented upon that day subject to grace and usance of trade; and when payable on demand it must be presented within a reasonable time. (Byles, p. 211.) When a bill is made payable at a particular place by the drawer of a draft or by the acceptor in a general acceptance, presentment for payment must be made at that place. The person who presents the bill should produce it and be ready and willing to surrender it on receiving payment. In case

of conditional and qualified acceptances: "To pay when goods consigned to me are sold' (Smith v. Abbott, 2 Stra. 1152); 'to pay as remitted for'; 'to pay when cargo of equal value is consigned to me'; 'payable when house is ready for acceptance.' (Cook v. Wolfendale, 105 Mass. 401)." (Tiedeman, Com. Paper, Sec. 227.)

the bill is lost presentment of a copy with a bond of indemnity would be valid. (Lane v. Bank, 9 Heisk. 419.) And a protest may be made on a copy of the lost instrument. (Brooks' Notary, 4th ed., pp. 137, 217.)

A bill is said to be dishonored by non-payment when it is duly presented for payment and payment refused or cannot be obtained; or when presentment for payment is excused, and the bill is overdue and unpaid. The holder of a bill dishonored by non-payment, by taking steps to protest the bill acquires right of recourse against all antecedent parties to the bill.

When a bill is payable generally or at a particular place no presentment is necessary to charge the acceptor, as it is his duty to be on hand to pay or seek out his creditor to pay him. (Dougherty v. Bank, 13 Ga. 288.)

TRANSFER.

Sec. 802. IN WHAT WAYS BILLS AND NOTES MAY BE TRANSFERRED.-As a bill or note is a chattel it may be sold as a chattel; it is also a chose in action and can be assigned as a chose in action, and as it is also a negotiable instrument it may be transferred by indorsement according to the rules of the law merchant.

Sec. 803. TRANSFER BY ACT OF LAW.At common law the title to a bill of a married woman during marriage was in the husband, if he died it reverted to her. (Draper v. Jackson, 16 Mass. 480.) This rule does not apply to a bill forming part of wife's separate estate, and now quite generally by statute a

married woman has the rights of a feme sole. (See this subject discussed in Vol. 3 of The Cyclopedia of Law.)

On the death of a holder the title passes by act of law to his personal representatives. And upon the death of a joint payee the law passes the title to the survivor or survivors. (Wheeler v. Wheeler, 9 Cow. 34.)

Sec. 804. TRANSFER BY ASSIGNMENT.— The holder of a bill may transfer it by assignment the same as any other chose in action. Where the holder of a bill payable to order transfers it without indorsement it operates as an equitable assignment, and the transferee may compel indorsement. (Matteson v. Morris, 40 Mich. 55.)*

When indorsement is subsequently obtained the transfer operates as a negotiation from the time when given, unless the indorsement was omitted at the time of transfer by fraud, accident or mistake, in which case it operates from the time of the transfer. (Lancaster Bank v. Taylor, 100 Mass. 18.)

The holder of a bill, but not the maker of a note, may deliver it by way of a gift in contemplation of death, and die, and it will operate as a valid donatio mortis causa. But the estate is not liable on the donor's indorsement. (Weston v. Hight, 17 Me. 287.)

Sec. 805. TRANSFER BY NEGOTIATION, ITS MEANING.-"Negotiation" means the transfer *C, the holder of a bill payable to order, transfers it to D for value without indorsing it. D cannot sue the acceptor in his own name, or negotiate the bill by indorsing it to E." (Benj.'s Chalmers, B. N. & Checks, Art. 104; Hull v. Conover, 35 Ind.

of a bill in the form and manner prescribed by the law merchant with the incidents and privileges annexed thereby, i. e.:

1. The transferee can sue all parties to the instrument in his own name, and, if an innocent holder, be free from all defenses unknown to him and not appearing on the face of the note.

2. The consideration for the transfer is prima facie presumed.

3. The transferor can under certain conditions give a good title, although he has none himself.

4. The transferee can further negotiate the bill with the like privileges and incidents. (Benj.'s Chalmers,

B. N. & C., Art. 106.)

We have seen in the previous chapters that to make a bill or note negotiable it must contain express words making it negotiable, and these words of negotiability were there discussed. (Sec. 755, et seq., ante.)

When the bill is made negotiable in its origin, the absence of words implying power to transfer will not limit the negotiable effect of such indorsement. (Lea vitt v. Putman, 3 N. Y. 494.)

Having the other requisites a bill is negotiable which is payable in legal effect either to order or to bearer. It is payable to bearer when so stated or when indorsed in blank. And a bill lacking words of negotiability, but containing an expression as "this bill is to be negotiable,” indicating that it was the intention of the parties

to make it negotiable, will be negotiable. (Parker v. Middleton, 29 Pa. St. 530.)

Sec. 806. NEGOTIATIONS BY DELIVERY AND BY INDORSEMENT.-There are two modes of negotiation, by delivery and by indorsement according to the form of the instrument transferred. Thus, a bill which in legal effect is payable to bearer, may be negotiated by delivery alone. It may also be indorsed and makes the indorser a guarantor of the instrument, and such indorsement may be struck out without affecting the negotiability of the paper. A bill in legal effect payable to order is negotiated by indorsement.* But indorsement must be completed by delivery of the instrument, and the term usually implies delivery.

The indorsement must be written on the bill itself, or on a copy, or on a slip of paper attached thereto called an "Allonge," and considered a part of the bill. The indorsement may be on the face of the bill.

Sec. 807. KINDS OF INDORSEMENTS.-An indorsement may be in blank or a general indorsement, in which case the bill is transferable by delivery alone, or it may be a special or full indorsement designating the person to whom or to whose order the bill is thereby made payable, and then can only be negotiated by such person's indorsement.

The holder of a bill with a blank indorsement, may,

*"Indorsement means a writing on a bill signed by the holder, ordering the amount to be paid to a person therein designated, or to his order, or to bearer." (Benj.'s Chalmers, B. N. & C., Art. 111.)