" ACCOUNT PAYEE." Cheques are fre quently crossed :— or with some variation of those forms.
The words are an indication to the collect ing banker as to what is to be done with the proceeds of the cheque, but the banker on whom the cheque is drawn, so long as he pays it to the right banker, is not concerned with the words " account payee." In prac tice, a banker who receives such a cheque for collection, requires that it be placed ro the credit of the account as indicated in the crossing. In Bevan v. National Bank, Limited (1907, 23 T.L.R. Mr. Justice Channell said, " It was a direction to the receiving banker that the drawer desired to pay the particular cheque into the bank which kept the account of the payee. To disregard a direction of that kind, if the banker had information which might lead him to think that the account into which he was paying the cheque was not the payee's account, would be negligence."
It is not necessary for the collecting banker to place any note or indorsement upon the cheque that the amount has been placed to credit of the payee's There is no provision in the Bills of Exchange Act, 1882. regarding the words account payee " in connection with a crossing. Section 78 says that it shall not be lawful for any person, except as authorised by the Act, to add to the crossing. It is not understood, however, that such words are really an addition to the crossing. They may as a matter of convenience be placed close to a crossing, or even between the lines, but they would have the same effect wherever placed on the cheque, so long as the collecting banker could see them, and they may be placed with effect upon a cheque that is not crossed. !See CROSSED CHEQUE.