PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.

When the first edition of this book was published, the Negotiable Instruments Law had been passed in four States, viz.: New York, Connecticut, Florida and Colorado. In the four years which have elapsed since then it has been enacted in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Utah, Oregon and Washington, and has also been adopted by Congress as the law of the District of Columbia. In most instances the law has been passed in the form proposed by the Commissioners on Uniformity of Laws; but in several States a few minor changes have been made. These are indicated in the notes to this edition. I have also endeavored to point out the changes made by the law in the different States, and have added to the notes citations to the decisions in all the States where the statute is now in force. It is somewhat notable that so few cases have arisen under the Act. The reported cases number only about a half dozen in all; and in most of these the court was required only to apply the act, and not to construe it. Perhaps nothing could better demonstrate that the practical working of the law has been satisfactory. As in the previous edition, the text is that of the New York Act. For the information of the profession outside of New York it may be stated that the hiatus in the section numbers does not indicate the omission of any sections, but is in accordance with the plan adopted in all the "General Laws" of this State.

JOHN J. CRAWFORD. 30 Broad Street, New York, February 1, 1902.

PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.

In 1895 the Conference of Commissioners on Uniformity of Laws, which met that year in Detroit, instructed the Committee on Commercial Law to have prepared a codification of the law relating to bills and notes. The matter was referred to a sub-committee consisting of Lyman D. Brewster of Connecticut, Henry C. Wilcox of New York and Frank Bergen of New Jersey; and I was employed by the sub-committee to draw the proposed law. When completed, the draft, with my notes, was submitted to the sub-committee, who printed it and sent copies to each member of the conference, and also to many prominent lawyers and law professors, and to several English judges and lawyers, with an invitation for suggestions and criticisms. The draft was submitted to the conference which met at Saratoga in August, 1896; and the Commissioners who were in attendance, being twenty-seen in all, and representing fourteen different States, went over it section by section, and made some amendments therein, most of which were such changes in the existing law as I had not felt at liberty to incorporate into the original draft. The draft as thus amended was adopted by the conference; and in such form it has been submitted to the legislatures of many of the States. It has been passed and has become a law in New York, Connecticut, Colorado and Florida. I am informed that the Commissioners on Uniformity of Laws will make special effort to have it adopted in many other States at the next session of their legislatures.

The text of the law as printed in this edition is that of the New York statute. This is precisely the same as that of the draft published by the Commissioners on Uniformity of Laws, and the statute as passed in Connecticut, Colorado and Florida, except that the section numbers have been changed, and section headings introduced, to conform the statute to the plan adopted by the Commissioners of Statutory Revision in their revision of the General Laws, and three sections, viz., 330, 331 and 332, relating to special matters heretofore embodied in other New York statutes, have been added.

In the course of the passage of the bill through the New York Legislature a number of errors were made in the engrossing and were not detected until too late to be corrected. I have indicated these by asterisks and foot-notes. Probably none of them are of such a character as to effect the meaning, since they are so obviously mistakes.

In submitting this edition of the statute to the public, I embrace this my first opportunity to publicly express my appreciation of the unvarying courtesy and consideration shown me by the Commissioners on Uniformity of Laws, and especially by those composing the sub-committee having the preparation of the bill in charge.

JOHN J. CRAWFORD. 30 Broad Street, New York, July 8, 1897.

TABLE OF CORRESPONDING SECTIONS.

Commis

sioners'

Ala. Ariz. Col. Conn. Fla. Ida. Ill. Ind.

Draft

Kan.

For the numbers in other States, see pages xvii-xx and xxi-xxiv.

2969 3492 35 2970 3493 36 2971 3494 37 2972 3495 38 2973 3496 39 2974 3497 40 2975 3498 41 4212 2976 3499 42 9089p1 5288 4213 2977 3500 43 9089q1

908911 5281

9089j1 5282

9089k1
908911
9089m1
9089n1 5286

5283

5284

5285

908901 5287