KJEGAL INSTRUCTOR. 



ACCEPTANCE. 



An Acceptance is an engagement to pay a bill of ex- 

 change according to the nature of the acceptance. The 

 circumstances which generally occur in an acceptance, 

 are, that the party to whom the bill is addressed binds 

 himself to the payment, after the bill has issued before 

 it becomes due, and according to its tenor ; and this is 

 usually done by either subscribing his name, or writing 

 the words accepts, or accepted, A. B. But a man may 

 be bound as acceptor without any of these circum- 

 stances. 



If a person in writing, authorize 'another to draw a 

 bill of exchange, and stipulate to honor the bill, and the 

 bill be afterwards drawn, and taken by a third party, 

 on the credit of that letter, it is equal to the acceptance 

 of the bill. 



By the Revised Statutes of the State of New-York, 

 no person within this State can be charged as an ac- 

 ceptor on a bill of exchange, unless his acceptance be in 

 writing ; and the holder may require the acceptance to 

 be upon the bill, and a refusal to comply, will be deemed 

 a refusal to accept. 



The acceptor of a bill is the principal debtor ; he can- 

 not assume the attitude of a surety, though only an 

 accommodation acceptor, and the equitable doctrine re- 

 specting sureties does not apply to him ; and if it did, it 

 would not avail him in a suit at law upon a written ac- 

 ceptance, for which, by the law merchant, there is a 

 sufficient consideration implied. 



An Acceptor is bound to know the drawer's hand- 

 writing, and cannot resist payment to B.bonaJide holder, 

 though the bill be a forgery. 



