US SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

This Court is bound by the finding of a jury in an action at law, properly submitted to them on conflicting evidence.

A bill of exchange is not negotiated within the meaning of § 537, Rev.Stats. Missouri ed. 1879, § 723, ed. 1889, while it remains in the ownership or possession of the payee.

The obligation to perform a verbal agreement, made in Missouri, to accept and pay, on presentation at the place of business of the promisor in Illinois, all drafts drawn upon him by the promisee for livestock to be consigned by the promisee from Missouri to the promisor in Illinois, is to be determined by the law of Illinois, the place of performance, and not by the law of Missouri.

The case was stated by the court as follows:

This is an action of assumpsit. It is based upon an alleged verbal agreement made on or about April 1, 1886, at Marshall, Missouri, between the defendants in error, plaintiffs below, doing business at that place as bankers, under the name of Cordell & Dunnica, and the plaintiffs in error, doing business at the Union Stockyards, Chicago, Illinois, under the name of Hall Bros. & Co. There was a verdict and judgment in favor of the plaintiffs for $5,785.79.

The alleged agreement was, in substance, that Hall Bros. & Co. would accept and pay, or pay on presentation, all drafts made upon them by one George Farlow in favor of Cordell & Dunnica, for the cost of any livestock bought by Farlow and shipped by him from Missouri to Hall Bros. & Co. at the Union Stockyards at Chicago.

There was proof before the jury tending to show that on or about July 13, 1886, Farlow shipped from Missouri nine carloads of cattle and one carload of hogs, consigned to Hall Bros. & Co. at the Union Stockyards, Chicago; that such cattle and hogs were received by the consignees, and by them chanrobles.com-red

Page 142 U. S. 117

were sold for account of Farlow; that out of the proceeds they retained the amount of the freight on the shipment, the expenses of feeding the stock on the way and at the stockyards, the charges at the yards and of the persons who came to Chicago with the stock, the commissions of the consignees on the sale, the amount Farlow owed them for moneys paid on other drafts over and above the net proceeds of livestock received and sold for him on the market, and $2,000 due from Farlow to Hall Bros. & Co. on certain past-due promissory notes given for money loaned to him; that at the time of the above shipment, Farlow, at Marshall, Missouri, the place of agreement, made his draft, of date July 13, 1886, upon Hall Bros. & Co. at the Union Stockyards, Chicago, in favor of Cordell & Dunnica, for $11,274, the draft stating that it was for the nine carloads of cattle and one carload of hogs; that this draft was discounted by Cordell & Dunnica, and the proceeds placed to Farlow's credit on their books; that the proceeds were paid out by the plaintiffs on his checks in favor of the parties from whom he purchased the stock mentioned in the draft, and for the expenses incurred in the shipment; that the draft covered only the cost of the stock to Farlow; that, upon its presentation to Hall Bros. & Co., they refused to pay it, and the same was protested for nonpayment, and that subsequently Cordell & Dunnica received from Hall Bros. & Co. only the sum of $5,936.55, the balance of the proceeds of the sale of the above cattle and hogs, consigned to them as stated, after deducting the amounts retained by the consignees out of such proceeds on the several accounts above mentioned. chanrobles.com-red

Page 142 U. S. 118