836 FEDERAL REPORTER. �•was an act of Belknap in the regular course of the business of the firm. Franklin M. Ketchum, as a partner, is clearly chargeable with notice of the form of the deposit and of the form of the cheeks deposited, for that deposit was unques- tionably a firm transaction, and the cheeks on their face do not import any title to the money in Belknap. On the contrary, they show that up to the very moment of the deposit the money deposited was Morris Ketchum's money. All that the papers on their face and the acts of Belknap purport to show is that Morris Ketchum had this money in the Pourth National Bank, and that it was his own money, and that Belknap, by drawing the check, represented that he had authority from Morris Ketchum to draw it out and pay it into the firm of Ketchum & Belknap ; but whether as a loan or as a gift, or in payment of a debt due to the firm, neither the papers nor the account show at ail. �Whîle, therefore, if Franklin. M. Ketchum had seen the cheeks, he might possibly have been misled into believing that Morris Ketchum had given Belknap authority to draw out the money and pay it into the firm, it would have been his own foUy; and it would not have been any proper infer- ence to be drawn from the facts if he had concluded that t];ie money had in any way become Belknap's. If Belknap had deceived him as to his authority, so far as the form of the check imports authority, it would have been clearly his mis- fortune, and would not have affected Morris Ketchum's rights. Besides, there was no payment of money to the firm till the check was collected, and this was done by the firm. In fact, both deposits were in the same bank, and the transaction was a transfer from the account of one depositor to that of the other. That transfer was effected after or simultaneously with the deposit of the cheeks. �That the deposit of the cheeks by Belknap was a firm trans- action, done by him as a partner, and not by him as an indi- vidual, is too plain for argument. By that very act, and as an inseparable part of it, and not before it, in order of time, the money of Morris Ketchum was appropriated to the use of the firm. It is impossible to say that the deposit was an ��� �
Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/844
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