FROM THE DRAFT PREPARED FOR THE COMMISSIONERS ON UNIFORMITY MARYLAND, VIRGINIA, NORTH CAROLINA, TENNESSEE, UTAH, OREGON AND WASHINGTON. THE FULL TEXT OF THE LAW AS ENACTED, BY JOHN J. CRAWFORD, Of the New York Bar, BY WHOM THE STATUTE WAS DRAWN. SECOND EDITION. NEW YORK: BAKER, VOORHIS AND COMPANY. 1902 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. |