Letter of credit

“ Many a credit grantor with a perfect record with respect to losses may be a business killer; he may think that his sole function is to prevent losses. His real function is to promote business. The best credit men in the country are rarely those with the smallest percentage of losses, although it does happen that the man who regards every customer as an asset to be conserved in the end has very few losses.
Therefore, in credit granting, in credit refusing, and in collection, the form letter is not to be used without considerable discrimination. ”

“ It is general when addressed to merchants or other persons in general, requesting an advance to a third person, and special when addressed to a particular person by name requesting him to make such an advance. A letter of credit is not a negotiable instrument. When a letter of credit is given for the purchase of goods, the letter of credit usually states the particulars of the merchandise against which bills are to be drawn, and shipping documents (bills of lading, invoices, insurance policies) are usually attached to the draft for acceptance. ”

“ That to entitle the plaintiffs to recover on said letter of credit, they must prove, that, in a reasonable time after they had made advances, acceptances or indorsements for said Haring, on the faith of said letters of guaranty, they gave notice to said defendants of the amount and extent thereof.
4. That to entitle the plaintiffs to recover on said letter of credit, they must prove, that a demand of payment had been made of Chester Haring, the principal debtor, of the debt sued for ”

“ It is material that he tells the Company in his letter that these two lacs of rupees were raised on his credit. His letter to the Council says that they were advanced from his private cash. What he raises on his credit may, on a fair construction, be considered as his own: but in this, too, he fails; for it is certain he has never transferred these bonds to any creditor; nor has he stated any sum he has paid, or for which he stands indebted, on that account, to any specific person. ”

“ One very successful credit man, who has handled the collections in one of the largest mercantile establishments in the country, gives it as his opinion that a letter should be sent with every request for payment—even with the monthly statement. ”

“ The credit men of mercantile institutions keep tab on their customers through the local merchants exchange and the commercial agencies, and are in a position to know to what extent it is safe to extend credit. The merchant cannot refuse to pay his bills and go to another wholesale house and [25] buy goods, hence if he is a little tardy in meeting his obligations the bluff letter will awaken him to the necessity of paying the bill. ”

“ At ten o'clock my creditor came, but half an hour before him the postman had put into my hand a letter containing a check for fifty dollars, the exact amount I needed. It had come from the editor to whom I had applied for twenty dollars, and lo! he had sent me fifty. The thirty advanced he said I could give him credit for on my next MS. He did not know my need, but God did, and thus He had answered my prayer."
In Everything Make Known Your Wants. ”

“ In the view of the law, credit is extended in reliance upon the evidence of the ability of the debtor to pay, and in confidence that his possessions will not be diminished to the prejedice of those who trust him. ”

“ But the act does not define the subject-matter on which the attachment may be laid by any reference to the person in whose hands in may happen to be. The credit is the thing attached; it may be attached in the hands of the plaintiff, or any other person.
May, then, a credit be in the hands of any person but the debtor, who himself directly owes the money to the defendant?
A credit is a right to demand money from some one. It is equivalent to the legal phrase, a chose in action-a thing to be sued for. ”

“ The word 'emit,' is never employed in describing those contracts by which a state binds itself to pay money at a future day for services actually received, or for money borrowed for present use; nor are instruments executed for such purposes, in common language, denominated 'bills of credit.' To 'emit bills of credit,' conveys to the mind the idea of issuing paper intended to circulate through the community for its ordinary purposes, as money, which paper is redeemable at a future day. ”

“ April 8, 1898—"The truth is, we buy only with gold coin, to which alone the name of money ought to be applied. No bank note, treasury note or paper certificate, in any form or by whomsoever issued, is more than an instrument of credit. ”

“ A loan office certificate differs in nothing from a common bill of credit, except in its higher denomination, and in the interest allowed on it; and the interest is allowed merely as a compensation to the lender for exchanging a number of small bills, which, being easily transferable, are most convenient, for a single one so large as not to be transferable in ordinary transactions. ”

“ But in truth, credit is given without enquiry, recklessly and equally to those in work and out of work, for necessities, luxuries, and inutilities, and given at a price which includes the profit of the credit giver, his costs of making weekly collections, the costs of his debt collector or solicitor, and ultimately a considerable tribute towards the maintenance of the County Court. ”

“ The neglect in funding the public debt, has introduced a practice of issuing Loan Office certificates, for the interest due on other Loan Office certificates. This I have absolutely forbidden, nor will I ever consent to it. Such accumulation of debt, while it distresses the public, and destroys its credit, by no means relieves the unfortunate individual, who is a public creditor; for if revenue is not provided, increasing the certificates would only lessen their value. ”

“ That some of these values exist only by virtue of the fact that credit is granted is no marked peculiarity. The granting of credit is an exchange of the rights of the creditor for rights to the future income of the borrower. ”

“ When a check is taken to a bank, and the bank receives it and places the amount to the credit of a customer, the relation of creditor and debtor between them subsists, and it is not that of principal and agent. ”

“ In other cases the debtors of the bank, and among them some of the directors, made compromises with the complainants; and in such cases your receiver delivered to the complainants the evidences of the indebtedness of such debtors, on obtaining a credit for the full amount of such assets on the judgment. ”

“ If a customer or friend of yours who owed you $40,000 on account should come to you and tell you that he had deposited $50,000 to your credit in the German National Bank of Little Rock, and that he wanted a receipt for the $40,000 that he owed you, and wanted a credit for the other $10,000, and you should give him the receipt and the credit, and should subsequently learn that he had never deposited one dollar in that bank for you, with what intent would you conclude he had made these statements? ”

“ A majority of the judges, in that case, in the language of the chief justice, say, that 'bills of credit signify a paper medium, intended to circulate between individuals, and between government and individuals, for the ondinary purposes of society.' A definition so general as this, would certainly embrace every description of paper which circulates as money. ”

“ A person has a note in one of the Western branch banks, and if the bank determines to extend no further credit, its custom is, when it sends out the usual notice of the time the note falls due, to write across the notice, in red ink, these three fatal words—well understood in that country—'Payment is expected.' This notice, thus rubricated, becomes a death-warrant to the credit of that customer, unless he can raise the wind, as it is called, to pay it off, or can discount a domestic bill of exchange. ”

“ I hold that it is the duty of the bank to supply its customers with exactly that form of credit, either current credit in the form of notes, or book credits subject to check, which their business demands, and that both forms of credit must be kept as good as gold by giving gold if gold is demanded. ”

“ ART. XI. The Certificates abovementioned shall be delivered over to the Commissioners holding the annuities in deposit, who shall check the same, in order that they be immediately inscribed in the Great Book of the Public Debt of France, to the debit of the deposit fund, and to the credit of the new Creditors, acknowledged as such, bearers of the said Certificates ; care being taken to distinguish the Perpetual from the Life Annuities. ”

“ Justice Story show that the receiving a note as security for a debt, or forbearance to sue a present claim or debt, or an exchange of securities, or becoming a surety, or doing any other act at the request or for the benefit of the maker or indorser, will constitute a sufficient consideration for note as well as the payment of money, or the making of advances, or giving credit, or the discharge of a present debt, or the performance of work or labor at the request of the party. ”

“ There has been no dissent from the view that an agreement to apply a designated credit or account to the payment of a check or draft drawn upon it creates security in the credit enforcible in equity as against general creditors. ”

“ Every private company which is instituted with a view to the purposes of banking may indeed issue promissory notes, which meet with a voluntary credit from the country; but these are distinguished from the public banks instituted by the authority of Government, and where credit does not depend upon the goodwill of any individual, as every man must accept in payment their notes when tendered to him. ”

“ Section 68a declares: 'In all cases of mutual debts or mutual credits between the estate of a bankrupt and a creditor the account shall be stated and one debt shall be set off against the other, and the balance only shall be allowed or paid.' The words 'debts' and 'credits' as there used are correlative. What is a debt on one side is a credit on the other. Libby v. Hopkins, 104 U.S. 303, 309, 26 L.Ed. 769. Liability for the penalty does not arise in contract but is laid in invitum as a disciplinary measure. ”

“ It is necessary that the credit of Grant and Ward should deservedly stand very high. These notes, as I understand it, are given for no other purpose than to raise money for the payment for grain, etc., purchased to fill government contracts. Under the circumstances, my dear General, you will see that it is of most vital importance to me particularly that the credit of the firm shall always be untarnished and unimpaired. ”

“ If he becomes responsible for the payment of the principal's debts generally, or lends his credit to a proposed purchaser of goods, he knows the amount of his liability, and the means of his principal to meet them. ”

“ In the borrowing of the money that may be needed in developing said enterprise, he is to use his credit by joining the other parties to this contract in the making or indorsing of any notes that may be required in negotiating the necessary loans for the making of said improvements and in paying off the loan of $32,000 now due on said property. ”

“ He therefore who fulfils his part, gives credit to the party who only promises to fulfil, and according to the variety of contracts, the nature of the prestations, or performances, therein stipulated, and the security given for fulfilling what is not performed, credit assumes different forms, and communicates to us different ideas. Paper credit or symbolical money, on the other hand, is more simple. It is an obligation to pay the intrinsic value of certain denominations of money contained in the paper. ”

“ No bank may extend credit to a related person:
a. if the credit and its financial terms and conditions have not been approved by the
board of directors or, in the case of a branch of a foreign bank, the designated branch
manager ”

“ We are enclosing a statement of your account and we request as a special favor that you send us a remittance previous to the 28th of this month if possible. The amount is small, but not the less important. We have unusually heavy obligations maturing on the first of next month and you will understand that for the proper conduct of business the flow of credit should not be dammed up. ”

“ Credit530 is the power of disposition over the goods of another,531 voluntarily granted in consideration of the mere promise of the counter-value.532 As Franklin says: A good pay is master of another man's purse. Hence, it is evident that whoever would obtain credit must be believed to possess the ability as well as the intention to fulfill his promise. Where [pg 269] this belief is based simply on the opinion entertained of the person of the debtor, we speak of personal credit,533 in contradistinction especially to the credit based on bailment, pledge, hypothecation etc. ”

“ A trust company acting as receiver is better able than an individual to furnish additional capital, if amply secured, and thus successfully to meet the difficulties which withdrawal of credit and restricted capital have temporarily brought upon an otherwise prosperous business. The courts authorize the issue of receivers' certificates to provide funds for purchase of equipment and the proper maintenance of the property and conduct of the business when the creditors are benefited by such expenditures. ”

“ If the Bank gave a note convertible into gold on presentation it gave gold: if it gave paper, which simply specified the obligation to pay gold for it some day or other, the value of the note depended on the credit attached to the promise. The promise to do a thing is never entirely equivalent to doing it ”