Windsor Sav. Bank v. McMahon

Citations

• 38 F. 283
• 3 L.R.A. 192
• 1889 U.S. App. LEXIS 2128

Syllabus

<p>1. Negotiable Instruments — Negotiability—Certainty in Amount — Law-Merchant.</p> <p>A stipulation in a promissory note, making the installments of interest, and, when due. the principal, payable at a given place, “with exchange on New York, ” renders the note non-negotiable under the law merchant, as it cannot be known until the times of payment arrive what the rates of exchange will be, and the amount necessary to discharge the note is therefore uncertain.</p> <p>2. Samé — Jurisdiction of Federal Courts.</p> <p>Under act Cong. 1875, providing that the federal courts shall have no jurisdiction of a suit founded on a contract in favor of an assignee unless the assignor could have prosecuted the suit in the same court, “except in cases of promissory notes, negotiable by the law-merchant, and bills of exchange, ” the negotiability of a note, so far as is necessary to determine the question of jurisdiction, is governed wholly by the rules of the law-merchant, regardless of the statutory provisions of the state in which the action is brought.</p>