Jennings v. President of the Manhattan Co.

Headnote

Bills, notes and checks — forgery — power of attorney — when power of attorney not broad enough to authorize indorsement of check.

Jennings v. President, etc., of Manhattan Co., 203 App. Div. 802 , affirmed.

Appeal, by permission, from a judgment of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the second judicial department, entered December 22, 1922, unanimously affirming a judgment in favor of plaintiff entered upon a decision of the court at a Trial Term without a jury. This action was brought to recover the sum of $5,000 on a check drawn by Brown Brothers &. Co. on the National Bank of Commerce in New York in favor of the plaintiff, Emerson P. Jennings, the proceeds of which defendant collected and has failed and refused to pay to the plaintiff, the payee thereof. Plaintiff claimed that his indorsement on the check was forged prior to its being deposited with the defendant bank for collection. The main question was whether a power of attorney from the plaintiff Jennings to one Wright was sufficiently

broad to authorize Wright to indorse the check of Brown Brothers & Co. with Jennings’ name, so that the indorsement of said check would operate in law upon its delivery as a transfer of plaintiff’s title to the proceeds thereof to the holder, the defendant bank.