American Exchange National Bank v. Federal National Bank

Citations

• 226 Pa. 483
• 75 A. 683
• 1910 Pa. LEXIS 803

Syllabus

<p>Bailment — Pledge—Pledge of book accounts — Assignment—Delivery.</p> <p>1. Incorporeal property being incapable of manual delivery, cannot be pledged without a written transfer of the title. Debts, negotiable instruments, stocks in incorporated companies and choses in actions generally, are pledged in that mode. Such transfer of the title performs the same office that delivery of possession does in case of the pledge of corporeal property. The transfer of the title, like delivery of possession, constitutes the evidence of the pledgee's right to the property in the thing pledged.</p> <p>2. The pledge of a book account is not completed by the delivery of a copy of the account. There must be an actual assignment of the account in writing in order to perfect the pledge.</p> <p>3. Where a creditor delivers a copy of an account receivable to a bank as a pledge, but without any written assignment of the account, and the debtor by whom the account is owing is not notified of the pledge, and thereafter the owner of the account collects the same through another bank with which the owner had an agreement that all moneys passing through its hands might be applied to the discharge of the indebtedness of the owner of the account, the latter bank may, if it has had no notice of the prior pledge of the account, retain the money collected on it, and is not obliged to surrender such money to the other bank with which the account had been pledged.</p>