Negotiable Instruments—Bonds and Coupons.—Bonds and coupons of a corporation which state on their face that they are secured by trust deeds or mortgages, although payable to bearer and transferable by delivery, were not negotiable instruments, as that term was defined in sections 3088 and 3093 of the Civil Code, prior to amendment of those sections in 1915.

Lost or Stolen Property—Title of True Owner.—One who buys lost or stolen property from a finder or thief, though he pay full value, in good faith, and without notice, obtains no title as against the true owner.

Non-negotiable Bonds—Custom and Usage—Evidence Inadmissible. Where certain bonds, payable to bearer, but non-negotiable by the express terms of sections 3088 and 3093 of the Civil Code, as those sections existed before amendment in 1915, by reason of the fact that the bonds appeared on their face to be secured by trust deeds or mortgages, were kept by a bank which owned them, in a vault to which an employee had access, with authority to take them for the purpose of having the coupons detached, or for presentation for payment at maturity, but with no other authority to remove, negotiate, or dispose of them, were taken and pledged by this employee with stock brokers as security for his liabilities on his personal transactions with the brokers, and were sold by them under their pledge and the proceeds applied by them on the pledgor’s liability to them, and the bank, on discovering the fact, sued the brokers for the value of the .bonds, the trial court erred in admitting evidence that by a general usage and custom of trade, bonds payable to bearer but not negotiable instruments as defined by the Civil Code passed by delivery alone, and had by such general usage and custom come to be generally considered as negotiable instruments, and had thereby acquired that character, notwithstanding the terms of the statute.

Customs—Statutes—Powers of Courts Restricted.-—The rule that custom cannot overcome the positive provisions of a statute, or make that a negotiable instrument which the code declares shall not be such, is equally forceful to prevent the courts from making exceptions not made by the code, and which are contrary to its express terms.

Sales—Limitation on Title Transferred by Seller—Exception to General Rule.—The exception t'o the rule that a seller can give no better title than he has himself is confined to negotiable instruments, money, and currency.

Negotiable Instruments—Passing of Title by Delivery—Negotiability.—The fact that title to a bond or note payable to bearer may be passed by delivery does not make it a "negotiable instrument” within the meaning of the Civil Code, nor within the meaning of that term as used in the decisions, which except negotiable instruments from the general rule regarding sales by a finder or a thief.

Banks and Banking — Estoppel — Lack of Implied Authority of Assistant Cashier.—Where the assistant cashier of a bank, having access to non-negotiable bonds owned by the bank, but having no authority to negotiate or dispose of them, pledged them as security for his own liabilities to stock brokers through whom he was trading in stocks for his own benefit, and whom he t'old that he was the owner, the transaction was not one in which he was assuming to dispose of the bonds in behalf of the bank, and there was no estoppel in favor of the pledgee.