United States v. National Exchange Bank of Providence

Citations

• 214 U.S. 302
• 29 S. Ct. 665
• 53 L. Ed. 1006
• 1909 U.S. LEXIS 1920

Syllabus

<p>The United States can recover from a bank presenting pension checks to, and receiving- the money therefor from, a sub-treasury, where the names of the payees have been forged; and the fight to recover is not conditioned upon either demand or the giving of notice of the discovery of facts which by the operation of the legal warranty were presumably within the knowledge' of the bank. .</p> <p>The United States is not chargeable with the knowledge of the signatures of the vast numbers of persons entitled to receive pensions, and the exceptional rule as to certain classes of commercial paper that the person having knowledge of the genuine signature of the payee whose sigpature is forged is-negligent in paying on such ah indorsement and therefore cannot recover, does not. apply to the United States in regard to pension checks. Leather Manufacturers’ Bank v. Merchants’ National Bank, 128 U. S. 26, approving White v. Continental National Bank, 64 N. Y. 316, followed.</p> <p>Qucere and not decided whether government pension checks are not official warrants, but checks, and, as such, subject to the general rules of commercial paper as between private parties.</p> <p>151 Fed. Rep. 402, reversed.</p>