Joseph Story

“ The object of drawing a foreign bill in sets is for the convenience of the payee, or other holder, to enable him to forward the same for acceptance by different conveyances, and thus to guard against any loss, by accident or otherwise, which might occur if there were but a single bill. ”

“ The law will not presume that the other bills of the set have been negotiated to other persons, merely because they are not produced. And the endorser is not put to any hazard or peril by the non-production of them; since, like the acceptor, if he once pay the bill, without notice of any superior adverse claim, by a negotiation of another of the set to another party, he will be completely exonerated. On the other hand, great inconveniences might arise from compelling the plaintiff to produce the other parts of the set, or to account for their non-production ”

“ But from the very frame of the set, if one is paid or discharged by the acceptor, or other party liable on it, he is ordinarily discharged from the others; since each part contains a condition, that it shall be payable only when the others remain unpaid. Now, when one of the set is protested for non-acceptance, and due notice is given to an endorser, and on the trial of an action brought against him by the endorsee, the same bill of the set on which the protest is made is produced, that is prima facie proof of his being responsible thereon. ”