the bill a bill payable on demand, in the sense of the Stamp § 11. at a future 11. A bill is payable at a determinable future time Bill payable within the meaning of this Act (a) which is expressed time. to be payable (1.) At a fixed period (b) after date or sight. (2.) On or at a fixed period after the occurrence of a specified event which is certain to happen, though the time of happening may be uncertain (c). An instrument expressed to be payable on a contingency is not a bill, and the happening of the event does not cure the defect. (a.) Vide § 3 (1). (b.) The period may be fixed by any division of time, as days, weeks, months, quarters, or years. It may also be made payable at one or more usances, or at a half usance. Usance is the time for which a bill is customarily drawn between one place and another. (c.) A writing containing an order or promise to pay on the happening of a contingency is not necessarily invalid, but it cannot be made payable to bearer, is not negotiable if not in re mercatoria, and must be authenticated in the same way as an ordinary obligation. A bottomry bill is an example of an obligation payable on the happening of an uncertain event. date in bill date. 12. Where a bill expressed to be payable at a fixed Omission of period after date is issued undated, or where the payable after acceptance of a bill payable at a fixed period after sight is undated, any holder (a) may insert therein the true date of issue (a) or acceptance (b), and the bill shall be payable accordingly. § 12. Provided that (1) where the holder (a) in good faith (c) and by mistake inserts a wrong date, and (2) in every case where a wrong date is inserted, if the bill subsequently comes into the hands of a holder in due course (d) the bill shall not be avoided thereby, but shall operate and be payable as if the date so inserted had been the true date (e). (a.) Vide § 2. (b.) Vide § 2 and 17. (c.) Vide § 90. (d.) Vide § 29. (e.) This section, which only applies to bills payable after date, and acceptances of bills payable after sight, limits the effect of § 20. The holder of a bill payable after date, or of an acceptance of a bill payable after sight has an unqualified right to fill up the true date instead of a prima facie authority to fill in any date he thinks fit. If the holder in good faith, and by mistake, inserts a wrong date, that date is taken to be the true date, while if under § 20 an omission is filled up, it is competent to show that it has been filled up in contravention of an express authority. The rights of a holder in due course are the same under this section and section 20. In the two cases provided for in this section the date is material, and an action apparently cannot be brought upon the bill until the true date has been filled in. Section 10 of the Mercantile Law Amendment (Scotland) Act, which allows the date of a bill issued without a date to be proved, has been repealed. If a wrong date has been knowingly filled in for the purpose of altering the time of payment, the bill will probably be held to be avoided under § 64, except in a question with a holder in due course. Antedating and postdating. 13. 1. Where a bill or an acceptance or any indorsement on a bill is dated, the date shall, unless the contrary be proved (a), be deemed to be the true date (b) of the drawing, acceptance, or indorsement, as the case may be. 2. A bill is not invalid by reason only that it is antedated or postdated (c), or that it bears date on a Sunday (d). (a.) The true date may be proved by parole, vide § 100, when the averment that the bill bears a wrong date is relevant to any question of liability on the bill. It is not relevant in a question with a holder in due course to aver that the wrong date has been inserted in the case of a bill payable after date, or of an acceptance of a bill payable after sight, vide § 12, nor with any holder in the case of bills payment of which does not depend on the date of drawing or acceptance, for in such cases the want of the date does not render the bill invalid, vide § 3 (4 a). If the date of a bill be altered without authority, the bill is avoided thereby, even in the hands of a holder in due course, unless the alteration is not apparent, vide § 64, and the true date may accordingly be proved. Where a bill is proved to have been fraudulently antedated or postdated, or where a wrong date has been fraudulently inserted, a holder in due course must prove that value has been in good faith given for the bill, vide § 30. (b.) The true date of the drawing, acceptance, or indorsement of a bill is the date of delivery of the instrument in order to give effect thereto, vide § 21; and where an indorsement is not dated it is presumed to have been made of the date of the bill, or if that is shown not to be its date, to have been made before the maturity of the bill, vide § 36 (4). (c.) If a bill payable on demand be issued bearing date after the date of issue, payment cannot be demanded before the date on the bill has come, and if the bill is not sued on till after the date it bears, the objection that it is not properly stamped will be repelled, Gatty v. Fry, 2 Ex. Div. 265. A bill is not saved from reduction under the Bankruptcy Act § 13. § 13. 1696, c. 5, by being antedated, even though the antedating has been without fraudulent purpose, 19 & 20 Vict. c. 79, § 6. (d.) The nullity arising from the doing of an act on Sunday applies only to public acts in which judicial sanction is either sought or acted on, as in poinding, arrestment, &c., Elliot v. Faulke & Shute, 28th Jan. 1844, 6 D. 411. Computation of time of pay ment. 34 & 35 Vict. c. 17. 14. Where a bill is not payable on demand (a) the day on which it falls due (b) is determined as follows: 1. Three days, called days of grace, (c) are, in every case where the bill itself does not otherwise provide, added to the time of payment as fixed by the bill, and the bill is due and payable on the last day of grace: Provided that (a.) When the last day of grace falls on Sunday, Christmas Day, Good Friday, or a day appointed by royal proclamation as a public fast or thanksgiving day, the bill is, except in the case hereinafter provided for, due and payable on the preceding business day; (b.) When the last day of grace is a bank holiday (d) (other than Christmas Day or Good Friday) under the Bank Holidays Act, 1871, and Acts amending or extending it, or when the last day of grace is a Sunday and the second day of grace is a bank holiday, the bill is due and payable on the succeeding business day (e). (2.) Where a bill is payable at a fixed period after date, after sight, or after the happening of a specified event, the time of payment is determined by excluding the day from which the time of payment is to begin to run and by including the day of payment. (3.) Where a bill is payable at a fixed period after sight, the time begins to run from the date of the acceptance if the bill be accepted, and from the date of noting or protest (f) if the bill be noted or protested for non-acceptance (g), or for non-delivery (h). (4.) The term "month" in a bill means calendar month (i). (a.) Vide § 10. (b.) Presentment for payment must be made on this day, vide § 45 (1). (c.) Days of grace have been abolished in most countries, but are still in force in Russia, the United States, Portugal, and some of the smaller States. A bill drawn in a country where no days of grace are allowed, but payable in the United Kingdom or in a country where days of grace are allowed, is payable on the last day of grace, vide § 72 (5). (d.) Bank holidays under the Bank Holidays Act, 1871, and The Holidays Extension Act, 1875, In England are-Easter Monday. The Monday in Whitsun week. The first Monday in August. The twenty-sixth day of December, and -New Year's Day. In Scotland are— Christmas Day. If either of the above days fall on a $ 14. |