Aetna Casualty & Surety Co. v. Village of Maywood

262 Ill. App. 206, 1931 Ill. App. LEXIS 171
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJune 22, 1931
DocketGen. No. 34,937
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 262 Ill. App. 206 (Aetna Casualty & Surety Co. v. Village of Maywood) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Aetna Casualty & Surety Co. v. Village of Maywood, 262 Ill. App. 206, 1931 Ill. App. LEXIS 171 (Ill. Ct. App. 1931).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Matchett

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is an appeal by complainant from an order which sustained demurrers to its amended bill and (complainant having elected to stand by) dismissed the same for want of equity. The case grew out of the failure of the Peoples State Bank of Maywood, one of the defendants, which was closed by the direction of the Auditor of Public Accounts on February 8, 1930, and which is insolvent. When the bank failed the Village had on deposit with it approximately $63,000. Complainant had prior thereto executed and delivered to the Village two depositary bonds in which the bank was principal and the complainant surety. The penalties of the bonds were for $30,000. The condition in each of these bonds was that the bank would keep, account for and pay over the money on deposit when demanded by the City of Maywood.

Certain ordinances of the Village in force when these bonds were given named the defendant bank with three other banks as depositary of the village funds. These ordinances provided that the depositary bank before receiving deposits should file with the village clerk a bond with sureties as the board of trustees of the village might direct and approve; that the treasurer of said village “is hereby further required not to deposit or to have deposited with either of said banks at any time, moneys or funds belonging to said Village in excess of the penal sum of such bond of said bank on file at such time.” Before the failure of the defendant bank Grace E. Schroeder was the village treasurer and had, pursuant to the provisions of these ordinances, executed and delivered a bond in the penal sum of $75,000, in which defendant Great American Indemnity Company was surety. The condition of this bond was that she would “faithfully perform such duties as may be imposed on her by law and shall honestly account for all money that may come into her hands "in her official capacity.” The Village had no other depositary or indemnity bonds except those above described.

The bill avers that Schroeder failed to perform her duties as village treasurer by making deposits in the Peoples State Bank in excess of the aggregate penal sum of the depositary bonds furnished by the bank, and that the Great American Indemnity Company is liable under her bond for all such money deposited; that the excess sums were wrongfully deposited by the treasurer and wrongfully received by the bank and constitute trust funds, for which the Village is entitled to a preferred claim against the assets of the bank; that the total amount of deposits in excess of $30,000 was wrongfully mingled with other funds of the bank; that the total amount of the funds of the bank and of the trust fund, including other trust funds of the bank similarly mingled, was not depleted or dissipated below an amount equal to the excess deposits of the Village in the bank and said other trust funds; that the general assets of the bank at the time it became defunct as aforesaid were increased and were benefited to the extent of such excess deposits.

The bill avers on information and belief that the creditors of the bank through suits which have been brought, one of which is for the purpose of establishing a liability of the stockholders, will receive dividends or payments upon their claims from the assets of the bank; that these will amount to approximately 50 per cent of the total amount of the respective claims; that the Village will not make any attempt to enforce any claim against the treasurer or her surety; that it will not attempt to enforce any claim it may have that deposits illegally made in the bank are trust funds for which the Village is entitled to a preferred claim; that the attorney for the Village announced for it the intention to collect $30,000 from the complainant under the depositary bonds and to collect dividends from the assets of the bank in .the circuit court proceedings and thereby collect substantially its entire claim without any recourse whatsoever to the bond of the treasurer and her surety and without asserting any claim that the funds illegally deposited were trust funds and therefore entitled to a preference over the general creditors of the bank.

The bill also avers that complainant has offered to pay the Village $30,000, being the aggregate penalties of the depositary bonds, “upon the understanding, to be properly evidenced in writing, that the complainant was or shall be subrogated to the right of the Village pro rata to the extent of such payment, or upon the enforcement by the said Village of Maywood of its rights against the said Grace E. Schroeder and the Great American Indemnity Company, her surety, or upon enforcing its right to have the illegal deposit as aforesaid adjudged a trust fund entitled to a preference”; that the Village "has refused to accept this offer, to assert its rights against the treasurer and her surety, and to assert its rights to have the illegal deposit adjudged a trust fund entitled to a preference.

The bill further avers that the ordinances of the Village were a part of the transactions in connection with the making, execution and delivery of the depositary bonds; that complainant executed the same by reason of and in reliance upon the ordinances of the Village and upon the observance of the same by the Village treasurer with reference to the amounts of the deposits to be made in the defendant bank; that complainant relied, and was entitled to rely, upon the principal and the surety of the bonds performing their duties and obligations thereunder to pay to the Village the amount of any excess deposits over the penalties of the depositary bonds of complainant in the event of the failure of the bank.

The bill avers that in the event the Village is able to carry out its intention as expressed, complainant may be without remedy to participate in any dividends in the proceedings; that the Village may participate to the full extent of its claim amounting to $63,000; that by collecting approximately $31,500, which with the collection of $30,000 from complainant, the Village would be made approximately whole, and the village treasurer and her surety would not be compelled to contribute their just share arising by virtue of the failure of the village treasurer to observe and fulfill the terms of the village ordinances; that this would be unconscionable.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Labella Winnetka, Inc. v. General Casualty Insurance
259 F.R.D. 143 (N.D. Illinois, 2009)
Walter E. Heller & Co. v. Aetna Business Credit, Inc.
280 S.E.2d 144 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1981)
McEachran v. Maynard
267 Ill. App. 278 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1932)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
262 Ill. App. 206, 1931 Ill. App. LEXIS 171, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/aetna-casualty-surety-co-v-village-of-maywood-illappct-1931.