Responsibility of Drawee.—­The person drawn upon may know nothing of the draft.  He cannot be made a party to a contract without his knowledge and consent.  That he may have knowledge of the draft, it must be presented to him.  If upon seeing it he is willing to assume the responsibility of paying it when due, he signifies his willingness by writing across the face of the draft the word “accepted,” with the date of presentation and his name.  The draft thereby becomes his unconditional promise, and he becomes the principal debtor, occupying the position of a maker of a note.

Responsibility of Indorser.—­When a person endorses any commercial paper, he not only expresses thereby his consent to the transfer of it, but he also enters into a conditional contract with each person who may afterward come into possession of the paper, whereby he becomes responsible for its payment, if the principal debtor fails to meet his obligation.  To fix responsibility upon an indorser, payment must be demanded of the principal debtor on the very day when the obligation matures, and if payment is not made notice of the fact must be sent to the indorser before the end of the following day.

Responsibility of Drawer.—­Between the drawer and the payee a draft is a conditional contract, whereby the former impliedly agrees to pay the draft if the person drawn upon does not.  His obligation is that of a surety or first indorser.  To fix responsibility upon the drawer, the holder of the draft must promptly present it for acceptance to the person drawn upon; then, if it is not accepted, he must immediately notify the drawer.

Forged Paper.—­Forgery is the fraudulent making or altering of a written instrument.  One whose name is forged cannot be made responsible, since the act is not his.  And since money paid under a mistake must be refunded, a person who, deceived by the skill of the forger, should pay the seeming obligation, would be entitled to get his money back.

But every person is bound to use reasonable effort to prevent forgery.  Thus, if a merchant writes out a note all but the amount, and authorizes a clerk to put that in at some other time, and the clerk inserts a larger sum, any innocent purchaser can compel the merchant to pay the full amount.  In some states it is held that a person who leaves space in an obligation wherein the amount can readily be raised, is bound to stand the loss caused by his negligence.

Accommodation Paper.—­A man may be perfectly willing to lend a friend some money and yet be unable to do so.  He may, however, in any one of several ways, make it possible for his friend to obtain the money.  Thus A, wishing to accommodate his friend B, may make a note payable to B’s order; or he may endorse B’s note; or he may make a draft payable to B’s order; or he may accept B’s draft on him.  By selling the paper, B secures the money desired.  The implied contract between A and B is that B will pay the obligation.