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These cases are from the lawindexpro database. They are now being transferred to the swarb.co.uk website in a better form. As a case is published there, an entry here will link to it. The swarb.co.uk site includes many later cases.  














Banking - From: 1930 To: 1959

This page lists 24 cases, and was prepared on 03 April 2018.

 
T H Hancock v The Imperial Bank of Canada [1930] UKPC 62
30 Jun 1930
PC

Commonwealth, Banking
(Ontario) The appellant had signed a guarantee, but resisted payment under the Bank's claim saying that the terms of the contract had been made without his knoweldge.
[ Bailii ]
 
Calico Printers Association v Barclays Bank Limited (1931) 36 Com Cas 71
1931

Wright J
Banking
There is no privity of contract between the payee/customer of a remitting bank and the collecting bank arising from the processing of a cheque. Wright J said: "To create privity it must be established not only that the principal contemplated that a sub-agent would perform part of the contract, but also that the principal authorised the agent to create privity of contract between the principal and the sub-agent, which is a very different matter requiring precise proof."
1 Citers


 
Lloyds Bank Limited v E B Savory and Company [1933] AC 201; [1932] All ER 105
1932
HL
Lord Buckmaster, Lord Warrington. Lord Wright
Banking
The bank was held to be negligent (depriving it of the protection of section 82) not to ask a customer though respectively introduced the name of his employer and in the case of a married woman the name of her husband's employer. Whether a bank was negligent or not is to be decided subjectively from the standard of a reasonable man carrying on business of banking and endeavouring to do so in such manner as is calculated to protect itself and its customers against fraud.
Lord Wright said that a bank does not have "the duty of being amateur detectives".
Lord Buckmaster said: "These rules and statements are not a legal measure of the liability of a bank. They may fall short, or they may exceed what the court may regard as their duty in a particular case, but they afford a very valuable criterion of obvious risks against which the bank thinks it is their duty to guard."
1 Citers



 
 Greenwood v Martins Bank Limited; CA 1932 - [1932] 1 KB 371

 
 Greenwood v Martin's Bank Ltd; HL 1933 - [1933] AC 51
 
In re Russian Bank for Foreign Trade [1933] Ch 745
1933


Insolvency, Banking
Soviet legislation involved an extinguishment of the rights and obligations of the commercial banks and the creation of equivalent obligations on the part of a new State Bank.
1 Citers



 
 British Motor Trust Co Ltd v Hyams; 1934 - (1934) 50 TLR 230
 
Firm Bisham Chand, Through Lala Sri Ram v Seth Girdhari Lal and Another [1934] UKPC 28
14 May 1934
PC
Lord Blanesburgh, Lord Wright, Sie Lancelot Sanderson
Commonwealth, Limitation, Banking
Allahabad
[ Bailii ]
 
Trade Indemnity Co Ltd v Workington Harbour and Dock Board [1937] AC 1
1937
HL
Lord Atkin
Banking, Contract
The House held that a loan of £45,000 made by a building owner to a building contractor did not constitute an agreement "for any alteration in or to" the building contract which the company had guaranteed. The question was whether it was "within the general purview of the original guarantee". Lord Atkin also said: "My Lords, both actions were brought on the money bond." - That is the first and second actions. - "It is well established that in such an action the plaintiff has to establish damages occasioned by the breach or breaches of the conditions, and, if he succeeds, he recovers judgment on the whole amount of the bond, but can only issue execution for the amount of the damages proved."
1 Citers


 
Gibbons v Westminster Bank Ltd [1939] 2 KB 882; [1939] 3 All ER 577
1939

Lawrence J
Banking, Damages
For a non-trading customer of a bank whose cheque has been wrongfully dishonoured, injury to credit in law must be pleaded and proved as special damages.
1 Citers


 
Wirth v Weigel Leygonie and Co Ltd [1939] 3 All ER 712
1939
CA
Du Parcq LJ
Banking
Du Parcq LJ said: "I doubt whether a promise to pay to a man or to somebody else, who may be his creditor or debtor is a promissory note."
1 Citers


 
Davidson v Barclays Bank Ltd [1940] 1 All ER 316
1940

Hilbery J
Banking, Defamation, Damages
The Plaintiff, a credit bookmaker successfully sued the Bank in libel. The libel proved was writing the words 'not sufficient' on a cheque issued by the Plaintiff when they dishonoured it. He would have had sufficient funds ad the bank followed his instructions to stop an earlier cheque. As applied to cheques, s 49(12) of the 1882 Act required notice of dishonour to be given by the bank within a reasonable time thereafter. Held: Though there was only one cheque Hilbery J thought the effect would have been significant because of the nature of the Plaintiff's business and the speed with which news of dishonour would travel. Hilbery J said damages had to be "a proper sum to be given as a reasonable compensation for the injury which has been done to the plaintiff, and of course it must be sufficient to mark beyond a shadow of doubt the complete lack of justification for making the aspersion which was made by this means on the Plaintiff's credit". He awarded £250.
The bank could not rely on mistake as an occasion of privilege: "you cannot, by making a mistake, create the occasion for making the communication, and what the bank seek to do here is to create an occasion of qualified privilege by making a mistake which called for a communication on their part." No general need was identified which required the engagement of principles of qualified privilege in respect of communication of a notice of dishonour.
Bills of Exchange Act 1882 49(12)
1 Citers


 
Hulme v Brigham [1943] 1 All ER 204; [1943] 1 KB 152
1943


Banking

1 Citers


 
Bank of Chettinad Ltd of Colombo vCommissioners of Income Tax, Colombo [1948] AC 378
1948
PC

Banking
Whether a company is a bank or undertakes the "business of banking" can bear a different meaning at different times.
1 Citers


 
Carse v Coppen 1951 SC 233; [1950] ScotCS CSIH_5
8 Dec 1950
IHCS
Lord President Cooper
Scotland, Banking
The court considered the inability to create a floating charge over a company's assets in Scots law. It was conceded that a company registered in Scotland could not create a valid and effectual floating charge over its assets in Scotland, but it was contended that it had done so over its assets in England. This argument was rejected. Lord President Cooper said that a floating charge was utterly repugnant to the principles of Scots law, which did not recognise it as creating a security at all. The reforms in the law which had been effected because of the many criticisms that had been directed against the injustices capable of being inflicted on the trade creditors by the use of floating charges had been expressly confined to companies registered in England. It was unthinkable that this could have been done except upon the view that companies registered in Scotland and subject to Scots law could not create floating charges.
1 Citers

[ Bailii ]
 
Bank Melli Iran v Barclays Bank Ltd [1951] 2 Lloyds Rep 362
1951


Agency, Banking

1 Citers



 
 Greenhalgh v Alderne Cinemas Ltd; 1951 - [1951] Ch 286

 
 Nicol's Trusteess v Sutherland; HL 7-Feb-1951 - [1951] UKHL 5; [1951] WN 110; 1951 SLT 201; 1951 SC (HL) 21
 
Re Banque des Marchands de Moscou (Koupetschesky) [1952] 1 All ER 1269
1952


Banking, Insolvency

1 Citers


 
Bank of New South Wales v Laing [1954] AC 135
1954


Banking
A bank is not under an obligation to lend to a current account customer or to allow him overdraft facilities unless it has agreed to do so.
1 Citers



 
 In re Banque des Marchands de Moscou (Koupetschesky) (No 2); CA 1954 - [1954] 2 All ER 746; [1954] 1 WLR 1108; 98 Sol Jo 557

 
 Bute (Marquess) v Barclays Bank Ltd; 1955 - [1955] 1 QB 202
 
Woods v Martins Bank Ltd [1958] 3 All ER 166; [1958] 1 WLR 1018; [1959] 1 QB 55
1958

Salmon J
Banking, Negligence, Litigation Practice
If a bank chooses to give advice to a customer, then the Bank’s obligation is to advise with ordinary skill and care. The liability is primarily on contract: “In my judgment, the limits of a banker’s business cannot be laid down as a matter of law. The nature of such a business must in each case be a matter of fact . .” and “I find that it was and is within the scope of the Defendant Bank’s business to advise on all financial matters and that as they did advise him they owed a duty to the Plaintiff to advise him with reasonable care and skill.”
Salmon J discussed the duty of the lawyers for a party to make full disclosure: "It cannot be too clearly understood that solicitors owe a duty to the court, as officers of the court to make sure, as far as possible, that no relevant documents have been omitted from their client's list".
Salmon J discussed the duties of legal advisers: "it cannot be too clearly understood that solicitors owe a duty to the court, as officers of the court, to go through the documents disclosed by their client to make sure, as far as possible, that no relevant documents have been omitted from their client's [list]."
1 Citers


 
Ian Stach v Baker Bosley Ltd [1958] 2 QB 130
1958

Diplock J
Contract, Banking
The parties contracted for the sale of ship plates fob Benelux port for shipment to Canada in August-September 1956 with payment to be by confirmed irrevocable credit. The buyers failed to open the credit either by August 1st or by August 8th when the sellers called for it to be opened immediately. Held. It was the duty of the buyers to establish the credit by August 1st at the latest and, although the sellers had waived their right to treat the contract as repudiated by reason of their failure to do so until such time had elapsed after August 8th as could be regarded as "immediately", on August 14th, the sellers had been entitled to accept, as they did, the buyers' breach was a repudiation of the contract. What was required was that by the time the shipping period started the seller should have received from the banker the assurance that if he performed his part of the contract he would receive payment.
A commercial letter of credit or banker's credit is more than "a mere method of payment" and "creates a direct liability upon the banker independent of the contract of sale, and is an undertaking by the banker that if the seller presents the required documents in the required time he will receive payment of the contract price".
1 Cites

1 Citers


 
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