ACCEPTANCE (ante), an agreement to pay a bill when legally due, applied usually to bills of exchange. There is no fixed time within which a bill must be presented for A., but usage prescribes as early a time as may be reasonably convenient, so that the acceptor may know when it becomes due. When a bill is drawn upon one's self, or by a partner in a firm upon that firm, or by an officer of a corporation upon such corporation, no A. is needed. When a bill is upon a firm, presentation for A. may be made to any of the partners; if to be accepted at a bank, it must be presented within the usual bank hours; or to a man of business at his place of business within the customary business hours. An A. may be either conditional, qualified, or complete; it may be in writing or oral, where no law to the contrary exists; it may be before or after the drawing, or after it is due; it may be by the maker of the bill, or by anybody who chooses to protect the paper. The common usage is to accept by writing on the bill itself the word' accepted," or more generally the mere signature of the acceptor suffices. The law of N. Y. requires A. in this form, and if the party refuses to sign his name the bill is subject to protest. Destroying a bill or refusing to return it within one day, whether accepted or not, is held to be equivalent to accepting. Where A is given with.conditions, the drawer of the bill should lie apprised of and satisfied with such conditions. To prevent loose
A. the statute of N. Y. requires that no one shall be charged as accepting unless his A. is in writing and signed by himself or his proper agent. It is also declared that a promise in writing to accept, although made before the bill is drawn, is in fact an A. in favor of any one who took such bill for value, on the faith of such promise in writing. It has been held that authority in writing or by telegraph to draw on a person is equivalent to that person's A. of the bills drawn; also that a letter of credit conferring authority on tho holder to draw upon the author of the letter is equivalent to a promise in writing to accept the bills drawn. An A. is an admission of the signature of the drawer; so if the sic:nature be forged, the acceptor is liable to the holder, presuming the latter to be innocent. A. is refused, the holder must satisfy the drawers and endorsers if he wishes to hold them, though failure to notify may not imperil the holder's action against them if it shall appear that no injury has been sustained by them in consequence oesuch failure; still the presumption is in their favor, and the burden of proof is on the holder. Foreign bills are protected in official form. This is not necessary in the case of home bills, unless where required by special statutes.