11. When A Check Is Due

A check is not considered due until payment is demanded, and in this regard differs from a bill of exchange or a note, which is payable on a particular day. Consequently, the receiving of a check a few days after its date from the payee does not, like the receiving of an overdue bill, subject the holder to the objections that might have been raised by the drawer against the payee. A delay of two or three days is not enough to put the receiver on inquiry concerning the consideration for which the check was given, nor subject him to defenses that might exist between the drawer and payee. Yet a check may be retained so long after its date without presentation as to east discredit thereon; and when a cheek is presented for payment in a discredited condition, the drawee hank should not pay it, and if it does, can not charge the check to the depositor's account. Again, when an overdue check is taken, this is done on the credit of the indorser, and is subject to the equities or defenses existing between the original parties.

12. Duty Of Holder

On refusal of payment, the holder should protest the check and notify the drawer as well as the indorsers, if there are any, whom he intends to hold for payment. Hut when the drawer has no funds in the hank at the time of drawing the check, presentment and notice are excused.

Nevertheless, the consequences of not presenting a 'heck within the proper time and notifying the drawer if it is not paid, are not the same as the consequences to the drawer of a bill from the holder's neglect to present it at the proper time to the acceptor for payment. If this is not done by the holder of the bill, the drawer is discharged. His liability is the same as that of an indorser. He prom ises to pay if the bill is properly presented to the acceptor and is not paid, and notice is given to him of the fact. But the drawer of a check is not discharged by neglect or delay to present it for payment, unless he has been injured by the holder's remissness, He is still liable, because he-is the primary debtor, unless he can show that he has suffered by the delay. The law, however, presumes that in some way he has been injured and consequently the holder is obliged to prove that the drawer has not lost anything in order to recover the amount due.

13. Holder Must Present Check Promptly

After a check is given to the holder it must be presented within a reasonable time for payment. It is true that the holder can keep it as long as he pleases, but he does so at his own risk of the bank's failure. The general rule is, a check drawn on a bank in the city where the holder lives must be presented for payment on the day of its receipt or the next. Generally a check is deposited on the day it is received, or the day following, and is presented to the drawee bank through the clearing house the day after. This is in sufficient time.

The reason for throwing the risk of keeping it longer on the holder is evident. The maker in effect says to him when giving his check, " The bank therein named owes me, and if you present my check at once, it will be paid;" and by accepting it, the holder impliedly agrees to comply with this direction. If he does not through forgetfulness or neglect, and the bank afterward fails, the maker ought not to be the loser, for the holder would have received his money had he presented the check within the usual time. His neglect, therefore, was wholly his own, and he has no just claim against the maker for the amount.

The holder of a check drawn on a bank in another city should send it either himself by an agent, on the same day he received it or the next, to the drawee bank, or to another for presentation to the drawee bank, for payment. The ordinary course of every depositor is to deposit the check thus received in his bank, which collects the amount for him. This is one of the advantages of keeping a bank account.