Bank of Italy v. First Bank of Kern

Action to recover an amount paid by the plaintiff to the defendant on its indorsement of a cashier’s check issued by the plaintiff, which check was cashed by the defendant for an impostor who forged the indorsement of the payee’s name thereon.

The case was submitted to the court below on an agreed statement of facts. As thus shown, the facts are as follows: The Bank of New South Wales issued its draft drawn on the ‘Crocker National Bank of San Francisco, payable to the order of E. D. T. Smith. This draft was mailed to Smith at St. Helena, California. It was stolen from the mail and was never received by Smith. Thereafter a man, unknown to plaintiff, presented said draft to plaintiff at Fresno, California, where he represented himself to be the payee, indorsed thereon the name E. D. T. Smith and requested that plaintiff cash the same. Plaintiff required this man (hereinafter called the impostor) to identify himself as the payee. This he failed to do, and then requested plaintiff to receive the draft for collection, and stated that on payment of the draft to plaintiff he would identify himself as the payee thereof. Thereupon the plaintiff received the draft for collection and…