Hall v. Steel

Citations

• 68 Ill. 231

Syllabus

<p>1. Draft—evidence of acceptance. It may be, in strictly commercial transactions, that a draft, being retained by the drawee and not returned to the payee in a reasonable time, may be considered as accepted by the drawee, and his liability to pay fixed.</p> <p>3. Order—whether its retention by drawee is an acceptance. But where the course of dealing between a contractor and a sub-contractor was for the latter to give orders on the former, which he entered on his stoppage book, and when' the monthly estimates came in their amounts would be withheld from the sub-contractor and paid on the orders, it was held, that the retention of such an order was not an acceptance thereof, so as to make the drawee liable for its amount.</p> <p>3. Same—extent of drawee’s liability on. Where such had been the previous course of dealing, that a contractor paid orders drawn on him by a sub-contractor to the extent of the money due the drawee in his hands, as shown by the monthly estimates of work done, and it appeared that at the time an order was drawn on the contractor by the sub-contractor, the former had in his hands money due the latter, sufficient to pay forty-five per cent of the orders then in his hands: Held, in a suit by the payee of an order so drawn, against the contractor, who retained the order without any formal acceptance, that the payee was entitled to recover forty-five per cent of the amount of the order.</p>