The vicinity of April Fool’s Day is an apt time to reflect on a tale often told to first-year law students. In contracts class, perhaps. It is the story of a man who wrote a check on the side of a cow.
The point of the story ultimately would be that a negotiable instrument is judged on the language and intent in the transaction, rather than by the physical means of evincing it. Kinda, sorta.
Anyhow, I recall this story being told as though it were true, and I believed it. After all, it came from a rural area in England, where the common law grew on trees, right?
As the story went, one Albert Haddock, in a case called Board of Inland Revenue v. Haddoock, had had a dispute with the British equivalent of the IRS. The parties had “been unable to establish harmonious relations,” said the court, “in spite of earnest endeavors on both sides.”
Finally, “after an exchange of endearing letters,” the amount in dispute was reduced to 57 pounds. Then, the Collector of Taxes received a visit from a noisy crowd, attracted by the sight of Mr. Haddock, who was leading a large white cow of malevolent aspect.” Clearly stenciled in red ink on the back and sides of the cow were the words: “To the London and Literary Bank, Ltd. Pay the Collector of taxes, who is no gentleman, or Order, the sum of 57 pounds (and may he rot!). £57.00 /s/ Albert Haddock.”
The Collector refused, “objecting that it would be difficult or even impossible to pay the cow into the bank.” Haddock countered that the Collector could simply “endorse the cow to any third party to whom he owed money, adding that there must be many persons in that category.”
In any event, the case goes on, with the end result being that the cheque is ruled valid because it meets all the other requisites of a … cheque! And what an entertaining case it is. It makes sense, in the long run and in the final analysis. And it makes the student of the law feel good to absorb it accordingly.
When something is that entertaining, regardless of what it seems to teach, one ought to ensure that it is not fiction. Which the Case of the Negotiable Cow certainly is! It is but one of “66 Misleading Cases” that comprise A.P. Herbert’s 1935 book, “Uncommon Law.” Herbert wrote that in 1967, after this “case” had aired on the BBC (as a satire), he “received a spacious cutting from an American newspaper,” bearing the headline “A Check Can Be Written On A Cow.”
Herbert wrote that “the article made not the slightest reference to me, my work or the BBC,” but reported his fictional case as though it were fact. At snopes.com, it is written that this tale continues to be “so widespread that major banks reportedly make reference to it in pamphlets” given to new customers.
The case even has its own Wiki article, so if you’d like to read more about it, don’t have a cow. Just look it up.
© 2016 Vic Fleming
Contact Vic at vicfleming@att.net.