their counting-house or dwelling-house, and they disagree § 20. about the then rate of exchange for commercial bills, the holder and the drawer, maker or indorser so notified, or any of them, may apply to the president, or, in his absence, to the secretary of any board of trade or chamber of commerce in the city or town in which the holder of such protested bill or note, or his agent, resides, or in the city or town nearest to the residence of such holder or agent, in which there is a board of trade or chamber of commerce, and obtain from such president or secretary a certificate in writing under his hand stating the said rate of exchange; and the rate stated in such certificate shall be final and conclusive as to the then rate of exchange, and shall regulate the sum to be paid accordingly. c. 42, 8. 12.

C. S. U. C.

bills

notes to

terest.

21. Every bill, draft and order drawn by any person Inland in the Province of Ontario on any person in either of the and Provinces of Ontario or Quebec, and every promissory note bear inmade or negotiated in the Province of Ontario, if protested for non-payment, shall be subject to interest from the date of the protest, or if interest is therein expressed as payable from a particular period, then from such period to the time of payment; and in case of protest, the expense of noting and protesting, and the postages thereby incurred shall be allowed and paid to the holder, over and above the said interest. C. S. U. C. c. 42, s. 13.

may be

day of

22. Every protest of inland or foreign bills of exchange Protest or promissory notes, for dishonor, either by non-acceptance made on or non-payment, may be made on the day of such dishonor, dishonor. at any time after non-acceptance, or in case of non-payment, at any time after the hour of three o'clock in the afternoon. C. S. U. C. c. 42, s. 15.

M'C.B.E.A.-31

§ 23.

How notice of protest may be served.

Form of protest and notice.

Notary's fees in Ontario.

Certain statutes respect

ing small

Ontario.

23. A notice of such protest shall be sent to each of the parties to the bill or note, and such notice shall be deemed to have been duly served, for all purposes upon the person to whom the same is addressed, if it is deposited in the post office nearest to the place of making presentment of such bill or note, at any time during the day whereon such protest has been made, or the next juridical day then following. C. S. U. C. c. 42, s. 16.

24. Every such protest and notice may be according to the forms set forth in Schedule A to this Act, or to the like effect. C. S. U. C. c. 42, s. 21, part.

25. The fees to be taken by notaries public, for the services hereinafter mentioned, shall be as follows, and no more, that is to say; for the protest of any bill, draft, note or order, fifty cents; for every notice, twenty-five cents; and for postage, the amount actually expended. C. S. U. C. c. 42, s. 22; C. S. C. c. 57, s. 1.

26. The Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, passed in the fifteenth year of the reign of King George the notes not Third, intituled: "An Act to restrain the negotiation of Promissory Notes and Inland Bills of Exchange, under a limited sum within that part of Great Britain called England," and the Act of the said Parliament passed in the seventeenth year of his said Majesty's reign, intituled: "An Act for further restraining the negotiation of Promissory Notes and Inland Bills of Exchange, under a limited sum, within that part of Great Britain called England," which are inapplicable to the Province of Ontario, shall not extend to or be in force therein, nor shall the said Acts make void any bills, notes, drafts or orders, which have been or may be made or uttered therein. C. S. U. C. c. 42, s. 1.

27. The following sections of this Act apply to the $ 27. Province of Quebec only.

Provisions ap

plicable

fees in

28. The several fees and charges mentioned in schedule to Quebec. B to this Act, relating to the protesting and noting of Notary's bills and notes in the Province of Quebec, together with Quebec. the postages prepaid upon notices deposited at any postoffice, may be claimed from the holder of the bill or note by the notary or justice of the peace, performing such duties, and shall be recovered from such parties thereto as are liable for the payment of the same. C. S. L. C. c. 64, s. 21.

Quebec.

29. The several notings, protests, notices thereof, and Forms in services of notices hereinbefore mentioned, shall be in the forms set forth in the said schedule. C. S. L. C. c. 64, 8. 22.

if un

person

protests

30. Every person who represents himself to be a notary Penalty for or justice of the peace in the Province of Quebec, and qualified who acts as such in and about the protesting of a bill or notes or note, or in and about the noting of a bill, not being such bills or notary for or justice in the Province of Quebec, is guilty of a misdemeanor, and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months. C. S. L. C. c. 64, s. 23.

notes.

The articles of the Civil Code of Lower Canada relating to this subject will be found in the collection of Statutes not consolidated, and post p. 486.

Schedule A is the form of protest and notice formerly used in Ontario. Schedule B is the tariff for protests in Quebec, given ante p. 441. The Forms appended to this Act have become the first schedule to the Bills of Exchange Act, 1890.

Rule 303.

All or

any parties liable on

one contract may be joined.

CONSOLIDATED RULES OF PRACTICE.

ONTARIO.

RULE 303. The plaintiff may, at his option, join as parties to the same action all or any of the persons severally, or jointly and severally, liable on any one contract, including parties to bills of exchange and promissory notes: Judicature Act, Rule 93. Same as English Rule 1875, O. 16, r. 5, (1883, R. 128).

By R. S. O. 1877, c. 50, s. 134, it was provided that all the parties to a bill or note might be joined in one action, but by section 135 the non-joinder of any joint drawer, maker, indorser, or acceptor might be pleaded in abatement.

By the present rule it is optional with the plaintiff in actions on bills and notes, as well as in actions on any other contract, to proceed against any one or more of the parties jointly or severally liable. See re Arcedeckne, Atkins v. Arcedeckne, 24 Ch. D. 709; Murray v. Gillett, 18 C. L. J. 78; but one of such parties if sued alone is entitled to have his co-contractors joined; Pilley v. Robinson, 20 Q. B. D. 155.

Under Chancery General Order 62, a plaintiff might select one or more of several persons liable. Under the corresponding English Con. Order (VII. R. 2), it was held in Smith v. Horsfall, 24 Beav. 331, that if the plaintiff chose to sue all or some of them, and the suit became defective or abated by reason of a transmission of the interest of one of them, he could not afterwards proceed against the other. This gloss on the Order was described as highly technical: Gray v. Lewis, L. R. 8 Chy. 1035, 1052, and will not be imported by analogy into the present Rules Lloyd v. Dimmack, 7 Ch. D. 398. In the latter case two of five defendants became bankrupt, and it was held that the action

might proceed against the other three without bringing the Rule 303. trustees of the bankrupts before the Court. For other restrictions upon the application of Chy. G. O. 62, see Lewin, 6th Ed. See also Wilson v. Rhodes, 8 Ch. D. 777. (Holmested &

Langton, Jud. Act, p. 321).

Plaintiff sought in one action to get judgment upon two overdue promissory notes, and to obtain execution for this claim and a previously recovered judgment against two separate pieces of land conveyed by the maker of the notes to the two other defendants separately. Held, that these causes of action might be joined: Heaton v. McKellar, 13 Ont. P. R. 81 (1889). See also Chaput v. Robert, 14 Ont. A. R. at p. 362 (1887).

As to the nature of the liability between the holders, acceptors and indorsers of bills, see Duncan v. N. & S. W. Bank, 6 App. Cas. at p. 11 (1880).