DAYS OF GRACE. Certain days al lowed to the acceptor of a bill or the maker of a note in which to make payment, in ad dition to the time contracted for by the bill or note itself.
2. They are so called because formerly they were allowed as a matter of -favor ; but, the custom of merchants to allow such days of grace having grown into law and been sanctioned by the courts, all bills of exchange are by the law merchant entitled to days of grace as of right. The act of Anne mak ing promissory notes negotiable confers the same right on those instruments. This act bas been generally adopted throughout the United States ; and the days of grace allowed are three. 6 Watts & S. Penn. 179; Chitty, Bills; Byles, Bills.
3. Where there is an established usage of the place where the bill is payable to demand payment on the fourth or other day instead of the third, the parties to it will be bound by such usage. 5 How. 317 ; 9 Wheat. 582; 1 Smith, Lead. Cas. 417. When the last day of grace happens on Sunday or a general holiday, as the Fourth of July, Christmas day, etc., the bill is due on the day previous, and must be presented on that day in order to hold the drawer and indorsers. 2 Caines, Cas. N. Y. 195; 2 Caines. N. Y. 343; 7 Wend. N. Y. 460; 8 Cow. N. Y. 203; 1 Johns. Cas. N. Y. 328; 4 Dall. Penn. 127; 5 Binn. Penn. 541; 4 Yerg. Tenn. 210; 10 Ohio, 507 ; 1 Ala. 295; 3 N. H. 14. Days of grace are, for all practical purposes, a part of the time the bill has to run, and interest is charged on them. 2 Cow. N. Y. 712.
4. Our courts always assume that the same number of days are allowed in other countries ; and a person claiming the benefit of a foreign law or usage must prove it. 8 Johns. N. Y. 189; 13 N. Y. 1:90 ; 4 Mete. Mass. 203 ; 2 Vt. 129; 7 Gill & J. Md. 78 ; 9 Pet. 33 ; 4 Mete. Mass. 203. When properly proved, the law of the place where the bill or note is payable prescribes the number of days of grace and the manner of calculating them. 1 Den. N. Y. 367 ; Story, Prom.
Notes, N 216, 247. The tendency to adopt as laws local usages or customs has been materially checked. 8 N. Y. 190. By tacit consent, the banks in New York city have not claimed days of grace on bills drawn on them; but the courts refused to sanction the custom as law or usage. 25 Wend. N. Y. 673.
5. According to law and usage, days of grace are allowed on bills payable at the fol lowing places according to this table :— Altona and Hamburg, twelve days.
United States of America, three days, ex cept Vermont, where no grace is allowed, and Louisiana, where, although on bills and notes made and payable in the state the three days are allowed, the bill is considered to be due without the grace for purposes of set-off. In New York, bills on bank cor porations are not entitled to grace, by statute.
Great Britain and Ireland, Berlin, Trieste, Vienna, three days.
Amsterdam, Antwerp, Genoa, France, Leg horn, Palermo, none.
Brazil, Rio Janeiro, Bahia, fifteen days. Frankfort-on-the-Main (Sundays and holi days not included), four days.
Spain, vary in different parts,—generally fourteen on foreign and eight on inland bills; at Cadiz, six. When bills are drawn at a certain date fixed, no grace. Bills at sight are not entitled to grace; nor are any bills, unless accepted.
Lisbon and Oporto, fifteen days- on local bills and six on foreign; but if not previously accepted, no grace.
6. Days of grace are computed in America by adding three days to the term of the bill or note, irrespective of the fact that the day on which the bill would be due without the days of grace is a Sunday or holiday. Bank ers' checks are payable on demand, without days of grace.