Amos Madden Thayer

“ Under these circumstances, the plaintiff in error has done all that the law requires him to do to obtain a review of the proceedings of the trial court, and its rights should not be sacrificed because the clerk has failed, inadvertently, to note the filing of the writ of error by an indorsement made on the writ itself. It is very likely that the filing of the writ of error is shown by the journal of the proceedings of the trial court on the day the writ was lodged with the clerk, and under the circumstances we may well presume that the fact does thus appear. ”

“ We turn at this point to consider one of the most important questions in the case, and that is whether the transaction in controversy, to wit, the rediscounting of the notes in suit, was an act so far outside the sphere of ordinary banking as to impose upon the New York Bank the duty of ascertaining that the president and cashier of the Little Rock Bank had been duly authorized by its board of directors to rediscount the paper in question. That the power to rediscount its bills receivable was vested in the defendant bank admits of no controversy. ”

“ The public interest requires that the same presumptions should attend an indorsement made by the president of a bank which exist in favor of an indorsement made by a cashier, and that banks should be held bound by acts of that nature when done by either of such officers in the ordinary course of business. ”

“ The latter transaction has more, if not all, of the characteristics of a sale, and it is generally regarded as a sale whereby assets of a certain kind are converted into cash. It may be said that a bank or an individual borrows money when they execute their own notes or bills, and receive the money thereon from a third party, even though the interest to accrue is deducted in advance, in the form of a discount. ”

“ It can hardly be expected that the cashier of a bank will be in attendance on all occasions when it becomes necessary for the bank to indorse notes and bills, draw drafts and checks, certify checks, or issue certificates of deposit. ”

“ The laws of trade are generally uniform in their operation, and the same causes which at certain seasons of the year occasion a greater demand for money and a dearth of currency in one section of the country, doubt- [p301] less produce the same results, at certain seasons, in other sections. ”

“ The plaintiff bank offered to prove by the official report of the comptroller of the currency that the amount of rediscounted paper held by national banks at various times between March 1, 1892, and January 1, 1893, ranged from $8,500,000 to $17,132,497, the largest amount being held in September, 1892, but the trial court rejected such proof. ”