CHECK, or' CHEQUE. A bill of eX•lialige (q.v.) drawn on a banker payable on demand. Such is the definition given in the English Bills of Exchange Act, lsS'2 (45 and 46 Viet.. c. 61, § 73), and in the Negotiable instruments Law, which has been adopted by a numberof the United States. (See Laws of New York, 1897, chap. 612, fi 321.) In a few States it has been held that run instrument drawn ilium a printed blank check form, and differing from an ordinary check only in that it was payable on a day subsequent to its date, is a cheek, as distinguished from a hill of exchange. Such was not the prevailing however, even before the statutes above referred to. It is not necessary that a check Inc drawn by a eitstinner on ink banker. nor that it he drawn against funds. although ordinarily it is so drawn: and a person wino obtains money on a cheek which he knows is d raWn by one not entitled to draw for the amount specified there in commits a fraud and may be liable to crim inal punishment. A check is intended for prompt presentment, and not for use as a continuing security: and when presented it is to be paid by the hanker and canceled, not accepted and returned tin the holder. In this country the usage of certifying checks prevails. The liability of a bank which certifies a check drawn upon it is the same as that of a drawee who accepts a bill. The effect of certification upon the draw er's liability depends upon whether it was pro cured by the holder or by the drawer. If the drawer procures it, he remains liable on the check as the drawer of an accepted bill of ex ehange, payable on demand. If the holder pro cures it, the drawer and indorsers are discharged from liability. In other words, the holder in the latter case chooses to substitute for payment by the bank its promise to pay. Mere delay in
presenting a (-heck does not discharge the drawer, unless loss is caused to him thereby. At common law, if the delay did result in loss, as where the bank failed during the period of delay, the drawer was discharged in lobo. By the English Bills of Exchange Act and tire American Nego tiable Instruments Law. this has been modified, and he is discharged only to the extent of the loss caused by the delay.
Crossing checks is an English usage which does not prevail inn this country. It consists ( I ) in writing across the face of the cheek the words 'and company' between two parallel lines, or in simply drawing two parallel trans verse lines across the face: or (2) in writing across the face the name of the banker. The first is called a general crossing, the latter a special crossing. A crossed cheek is payable only when presented through a bank, and one crossed specially is payable only through the bank specified. The usage was introduced as a protection and safeguard to the Owner of the check, but it did not restrain the negotiability of the instrument. The Bills of Exchange Act provides that if the crossing is accompanied with the words 'not negotiable,' a person taking the check shall not have, and shall 1101 he capable of giving, a better title than that of the person from whom he took it.
in most respects other than those mentioned above, cheeks are governed by the rules which apply to bills of exchange. Consult the authori ties referred to under NEGOTI RLE INSTRUMENTS.