Public Trustee V. Mrs. N. Seneviratne

1952 Present : Gratiaen J. and Gunasekara J.

PUBLIC TRUSTEE, Appellant, and MRS. N. SENEVIRATNE,
Respondent

S. C. 459-D. C. Colombo, 1,942

Donation-Cheque given by donor-Refusal of Bank to honour the cheque-Death of donor-Right of donee to sue legal representative.

Under Roman Dutch law a donation may be made not only by giving and delivering but also by promising. Both the giving causa donationis and the promising causa donationis are equally donations.

R. offered to donate to plaintiff a sum of Rs. 5,000 and plaintiff accepted the offer. Contemporaneously with the acceptance of R.'s offer to donate Rs. 6,000, plaintiff received a cheque for that amount from R. The Bank, however, refused to honour the cheque on the ground that R.'s signature was doubtful. Before R. could satisfy the Bank in regard to the authenticity of his signature, he died. In an action instituted by the donee to recover the amount involved from the administrator of R.'s estate-

Held, that the mere drawing of the cheque did not serve automatically to appropriate to the donee's benefit an equivalent sum of money lying to the donor's credit at the B

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