What will excuse presentment.

Time allowed for presentment for acceptance.

drawn from any place in the kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves, upon any place in the same kingdom, must be presented within thirty days from the date. If the bill is not presented within the time fixed by law the holder loses his rights against the indorser, and against the drawer when he can prove that he had made provision with the drawee. If the bill is sent in good time to be presented for acceptance or payment, but does not arrive there in consequence of an accident or of a superior force, the holder preserves his rights against the drawer and indorser, provided he presents the bill and protests it if necessary, on the morning after its arrival at the latest. It is the same if, the roads being intercepted, the post arrives later (a).

Russia. The holder must present for acceptance the bill payable at sight, or at a certain time after sight, within fortyeight hours of its reception. The time is prolonged till the first working day if it falls on a Sunday or a feast day. If it falls on a Sunday and the holder is a Jew the time is also prolonged. The holder has the right to fix the time within which the bill must be presented for acceptance from the date of the bill. In want of special indication, the presentation must take place within twelve months from the date of the bill. If the bill is not presented either in the conventional time, or in the time prescribed in the instrument, or within the legal time, the holder loses the rights on the bill, and is considered simply as an ordinary creditor. Nevertheless, if the bill could not be presented in time, in consequence of superior force, or delay of the post, or any other circumstances, independently of the will of the holder, the latter has then the right to present the bill as soon as possible, even after it has become due. Especially if the drawee has become insolvent the holder may exercise his rights against the drawer and indorsers, and the latter cannot object to the non-presentation in due time. But if the insolvency happened only after the bill became due, and the drawer prove that he had made provision in due time with the drawee, then the holder cannot go against the drawer and indorsers, and the rights of the drawer against the drawee pass to the holder (b).

Spain.-Bills drawn from the Peninsula and from the Balearic Islands upon any other place, and payable at any time after

(a) Portuguese Code of Commerce, (b) Russian Code, §§ 324-337. § 337.

sight, must be presented for acceptance within forty days from their date. Bills at sight must be presented within the same time. Those drawn from the above-named places, and payable at more than thirty days' date, must be presented for acceptance within the thirty days. Such periods are doubled for bills drawn between the Peninsula and the Canary Islands. Bills of exchange drawn between the Peninsula and the Spanish Antilles, or any other point beyond seas, situated beyond Cape Horn and of Good Hope, must be presented for acceptance or payment within six months from their date, whether the bill was payable at a certain time after sight or of date. The time is one year for places beyond sea, or beyond the two Capes. The holder of the bill who sends it for acceptance or payment beyond sea must always send two copies by different ships, and if it be found that the ships by which the first and second were sent had suf_ fered some accident which had delayed their voyage, the time runs only from the time when the accident was known at the place where the drawer resides. The same is when the loss of the ship is presumed for want of news. Bills drawn in foreign Time for precountries, or places of the Spanish territory, must be presented bill drawn on for acceptance or payment within the time indicated in them, or from unless they are payable at a certain time after date, and within tory. forty days after their arrival in the country if they are payable at a certain time after sight. If the bills are not presented within such times the holder loses all right of recourse in the Spanish tribunals. Bills drawn from the Spanish territory upon foreign countries must be presented in the forms prescribed by the laws in force in the countries where they must be paid. The holder of the bill who does not demand the acceptance within the fixed time, loses his right against the indorsers in case of non-payment by the drawee. The same forfeiture of rights. takes place as against the drawer if he prove that on the day when the bill became due he had made provision for it in the hands of the drawee (a).

Sweden.-A bill of exchange payable at a certain time after sight, and drawn from and on any part of the kingdom, must be presented for acceptance by the holder within three months of its issue. If the bill is drawn from a foreign country, upon a

(a) Spanish Code, §§ 483-485.

sentation for

Spanish terri

Laws of Swiss cantons.

place of the interior, the holder must send it for acceptance by the first post, except there be special agreement, whatever be the time it becomes due. The holder is responsible for the injury which he may cause by delay or neglect, except in case of superior force. A bill of exchange drawn from a foreign country on any place in this country, by the drawer himself, [need not be presented for acceptance so long as it rests in the hands of the payee, but as soon as the latter has indorsed it, the holder must present it. If the payee sends the bill to a third person to present it for acceptance, the agent, if he bound himself to do it, or if he is accustomed to do such a service, must present it as soon after the arrival of the post. If he does not wish to take the trouble, he must return the bill to the payee by the first post, otherwise he is regarded as having accepted the order, and becomes responsible as such (a).

Switzerland.-In Genevd the law is the same as in France, with the addition, that the forfeiture pronounced by Act 160 of the Code of Commerce takes place against the holder of a bill of exchange at one or more days, months, or usances of sight, drawn from the canton of Geneva, and payable in foreign countries, who has not demanded the payment or acceptance within the time prescribed for each of the respective distances. ale and Solern.-Bills of exchange, payable at a certain time after sight, must be presented for acceptance. Zurich.—The acceptance may be exacted on bills of exchange payable at a certain time after date as well as on those payable at a certain time after sight. St. Gall, Berne, and Lucern.-The holder must present the bill for acceptance as soon as he receives it, and before it is due. If the holder receives it on a Sunday or Monday he must present it the same Monday before five o'clock in the evening, or the Tuesday before mid-day at the latest. If the letter arrives on the Tuesday, he has time till the Wednesday evening; if on the Wednesday, till the Thursday evening; if on the Thursday, till the Friday evening; if on the Friday, till the Saturday evening; and lastly, if on the Saturday, till the Monday evening. Bills of exchange post-dated or antedated must be presented within the time indicated, taking no account of the date indicated in the bill.

(a) Swedish Law of 1748.

SECTION X.

ACCEPTANCE.

BRITISH LAWS.

An acceptance is an engagement to pay the bill when due (a). The acceptance of both inland and foreign bills must be in writing on the bill, and signed by the acceptor, or some person authorised by him (b). The drawee is not bound to accept a bill drawn upon him, unless he has contracted an express or implied obligation to that effect, in which case he would only be liable to the drawer for the refusal of acceptance (c). In no case, however, can a person contract any liability on a bill or note, except by his signature on the same.

Acceptance

must be in writing.

Death countermanding the authority to accept.

Infancy of drawee a just ground for re

fusal of acceptance.

the acceptor.

Where the drawer dies before the bill is accepted, the authority to accept is held to be countermanded, and the acceptance should be refused, inasmuch as the drawing does not operate as an assignment of the funds in the hands of the drawee (d). Where the drawee is found to be an infant, or a married woman, the holder may refuse his or her acceptance, and has a right to treat the bill as dishonoured. No person can be the acceptor of the bill of exchange except Who may be the drawee of the bill, or some one who accepts it for the honour of the drawer, as provided by the expression "in case of need at Messrs." &c. (e). The bill must be accepted by the drawee himself, or by some person duly authorised by him, though the holder may refuse the acceptance by an agent (ƒ). The acceptance per procuration is in fact a notice to the holder that the party so accepting acts under an authority from his principal, and imposes upon the holder the duty of ascertaining that the party so accepting is acting within the terms of such authority (g).

Where a bill is drawn on two or more persons partners in Bills draw

(a) Russell v. Phillips, 14 Q. B. 891; Clarke v. Cock, 4 East, 72.

(b) 19 & 20 Vict. c. 97, s. 6. (c) Smith v. Brown, 6 Taunt. 446; Laing v. Barclay, 1 B. & C. 398.

(d) Gibson v. Minet, 1 H. Bl. 586. (e) Polhill v. Walters, 3 B. & Ad. 114.

(f) 19 & 20 Viet. c. 97, s. 6.

(g) Alexander v. Mackenzie, 6 C. B. 766; Attwood v. Munnings, 7 B. & C. 283; Owen v. Van Uster, 10 C. B. 318; Nichols v. Diamond, 9 Exch. 154; Davidson v. Stanley, 2 M. & G. 721; Mare v. Charles, 5 B. & E. 978; Coore v. Callaway, 1 Esp. 116; Richards v. Barton, 1 Esp. 269.

upon partne

or upon seve

ral parties not partners.

Acceptance

time.

trade, the acceptance of one is the acceptance of all. But if the drawees are not partners, the bill must be accepted by all the drawees; and if one of them only accepts, the bill should be protested, unless the one who accepted acted as the special agent of the others (a).

The drawee must accept the bill in a reasonable time within must be given in a reasonable twenty-four hours after presentation, and if he does not accept it within that time, the holder may treat it as dishonoured (b). A bill may be accepted, even before it is drawn, by signing a blank bill duly stamped, and delivering the same to another for the purpose of filling it up and using it, the acceptor rendering himself in this case liable for any sum the party may have written upon it which is covered by the stamp (c). A bill may also be accepted after it has become due, and the effect of such an acceptance is to render the bill payable on demand (d).

Acceptance

may be abso

tional.

An acceptance may be absolute or conditional, qualified or lute or condi- partial, but the holder may refuse to take a conditional or qualified acceptance varying from the tenor of the bill; and if he takes it, he discharges all the parties in the bill. Where the acceptor gives a conditional acceptance contingent on the fulfilment of a certain condition, as, for example, payable on giving up a bill of lading, it is binding on the holder of the bill, upon presenting it for payment, to give up the bill of lading (e).

Place of payment.

Where a bill is accepted payable at the house of a banker or other place, without further expression, it is deemed a general and unqualified acceptance; but where the acceptor expresses in his acceptance that he accepts the bill payable at a banker's house or other place only, and not otherwise, or elsewhere, such acceptance is deemed a qualified acceptance, and the acceptor would be discharged by the non-presentation of the bill at such a place (f).

By the acceptance the drawee becomes primarily liable to pay the bill, and the drawer and indorsers are only collaterally liable on his default (g).

(a) Jenkins v. Morris, 16 M. & W. 877.

(b) Ingram v. Forster, 2 Smith, 243,

244.

(c) Montague v. Perkins, 17 Jur. 557; Temple v. Pullen, 4 Exch. 389; Armfield v. Allport, 27 L. J. Exch. 42.

(d) Wynne v. Raikes, 5 East, 514; Billing v. Devaux, 3 M. & G. 565.

(e) Smith v. Vertue, 30 L. J. C. P. 56 (N. S.).

(f) 1 & 2 Geo. 4, c. 78, s. 1; Sebag v. Abitbol, 4 M. & S. 462; Turner v. Hayden, 4 B. & C. 1.

(g) Heylyn v. Adamson, 2 Burr. 674; Dingwall v. Dunster, Doug. 249; Smith v. Knox, 3 Esp. 47; Philpot r. Bryant, 4 Bing. 720.