18. Teller Should Pay The Right Person

The presenter should be the rightful person to receive the money. English bankers laugh at our method of identification. Their system is wholly different. Their checks are crossed. This consists in writing "& Co." across the face of the check between two parallel lines, the effect of which is to restrict the presentation of the check for payment to a bank or banker. By this simple device all danger of wrongful presentation is reduced to zero, because the presenter is well known to the drawee bank.

The identification of the presenter is sometimes difficult. If he is a stranger in the city where the bank is located, he may be quite unable to find any one who can satisfy the teller of his identity. He may be troubled, therefore, to get his check paid, though having the strongest possible right to demand the money; on the other hand, this is one of the most common ways for wrongfully inclined persons to get money not belonging to them from banking institutions. An individual, for example, finds a check payable to the order of John Smith. He indorses John Smith's name and goes to the bank and demands payment. The paying teller asks for proof of identity, is deceived, and pays the money. After a while the true John Smith appears and demands the money specified in the check. The paying teller can not plead that he took proper precautions before paying the check; he must pay the true holder. If a check is indorsed payable to the bearer, or in blank, then the paving teller is safe in paying the presenter, whoever he may be, unless the teller had reason to suspect that he was not the real holder or owner. A rogue watches his chance, appears generally at the close of the banking day when the paving teller is very busy and has not time to look carefully at every check and presenter before paying.

This is the time also when forged and altered checks are presented and paid

19. The Money Should Be Counted

When a person receives money from a paying teller, he should at once count it. It a count is not then made, and the amount is afterward found to be short, troublesome questions arise. It the receiver can make his claim good, the bank must pay him the balance; otherwise the universal custom is that the receiver who does not at once make a count must accept the bank's count.

20. Imperfect Indorsement

Sometimes a check is imperfectly indorsed, and the paying teller can not rightfully pay it. The presenter may be very eager to have it accepted in order to make sure of the amount. If the paying teller should say to him, "You must get the proper indorsement," perhaps there might be danger of the maker's failure before he succeeded. There is a proper way of dealing with such cases. The presenter may ask the paying teller to certify the check, for the effect of this would be to charge the amount to the drawer; in other language, the amount certified is set aside to answer the check whenever it shall be presented. The certification, however, should not be in the usual form, but somewhat like this, "Good when properly indorsed."