BILL OF EXCHANGE.
A written order from one person to an other, directing- the person to whom it is addressed to pay to a third person a cer tain sum of money • therein named. Byles, Bills 1.
By the Negotiable Instrument Act, a bill of exchange is an unconditional order in writing addressed by one person to another, signed by the person giving it requiring the addressee to pay on demand, or at a fixed or determinable future time, a sum certain In money to order or to bearer. It may be either an inland bill or a foreign bill, and May be drawn in sets. The act defines a check as a bill of exchange drawn on a bank and payable on demand. See NEGOTIABLE INSTRUMENTS, for the states, etc., in which it has been enacted.
A bill of exchange may be negotiable or non-ne gotiable. If negotiable, it may be transferred either before or after acceptance.
The person making the bill, called the drawer, is said to draw 'upon the person to whom it is direct ed, and undertakes impliedly to pay the amount with certain costs if he refuse to comply with the command. The drawee is not liable on the bill till after acceptance, and then becomes liable as prin cipal to the extent of the terms of the acceptance ; while the drawer becomes liable to the payee and indorsees conditionally upon the failure of the ac ceptor to pay. The liabilities between indorsers and indorsees are subject to the same rules as those of Indorsers and indorsees on promissory notes. Reg ularly, the drawee Is the person to become accept or; but other parties may accept, under special circumstances.
A foreign bill of exchange is one of which the drawer and drawee are residents of countries foreign to each other. In this re spect the states of the United States are held foreign as to each other; Phcenix Bank v. Hussey, 12 Pick. (Mass.) 483; Wells v. White head, 15 Wend. (N. Y.) 527; Hopkins v. Clay, 3 A. K. Marsh. (Ky.) 488; Bank of Gape Fear v. Stinemetz, 1 Hill (S. C.) 44; Brown v. Ferguson, 4 Leigh (Va.) 37, 24 Am. Dec. 707; Green v. Jackson, 15 Me. 136; Donegan
v. Wood, 49 Ala. 242, 20 Am. Rep. 275; Todd v. Neal's Adm'•, 49 Ala. 266; Rice v. Hagan, 8 Dana (Ky.) 133 ; Carter v. Burley, 9 N. H. 558; Armstrong v. Bank, 133 U. S. 433, 10 Sup. Ct. 450, 33 L. Ed. 747; Knickerbocker Life Ins. Co. v. Pendleton, 112 U. S. 696, 5 Sup. Ct. 314, 28 L. Ed. 866 ; Ticonic Bank v. Stackpole, 41 Me. 302; 1 Dan. Neg. Inst. § 9. But see contra, Miller v. Hackley, 5 Johns. (N. Y.) 384, 4 Am. Dec. 372, and see Grimshaw v. Bender, 6 Mass. 162.
An inland bill is one of which the drawer and drawee are residents of the same state or country; Ragsdale v. Franklin, 25 Miss. 143. As to whether a bill is considered as foreign or inland when made partly in one place and partly in another, see 5 Taunt. 529; 8 id. 679; 1 Maule & S. 87. Defined by statute 19 & 20 Viet. c. 97, § 7.
The distinction between inland and foreign bills becomes important with reference to the question whether protest and notice are to be given in case of non-acceptance. See 3 Kent 95; PROTEST.
The parties to a bill of exchange are the drawer, the drawee, the acceptor, and the payee. Other persons connected with a bill in case of a transfer as parties to the trans fer are the indorser, indorsee, and holder. See those titles. It sometimes happens that one or more of the apparent parties to a bill are fictitious persons. The rights of a bond fide holder are not thereby prejudiced where the payee and indorser are fictitious; 2 H. Bla. 78; 1 Campb. 130; Blodgett v. Jackson, 40 N. H. 26; Benj. Chal. Dig. § 85; or even where the drawer and payee are both fictitious; 10 B. & C. 468 ; and all the various parties need not be different per sons ; Wildes v. Savage, 1 Sto. 22, Fed. Cas. No. 17,653. The qualifications of par ties who are to be made liable by the mak ing or transier of bills are the same as in case of other contracts. See PARTIES; FIG TTTIOUS PAYEE.
The bill must be written; 1 Pardessus, 344; 2 Stra. 955. See Goldman v. Blum, 58 Tex. 636.