American Surety Co. v. Baldwin

90 F.2d 708, 1937 U.S. App. LEXIS 3930
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedJune 23, 1937
DocketNo. 6066
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 90 F.2d 708 (American Surety Co. v. Baldwin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
American Surety Co. v. Baldwin, 90 F.2d 708, 1937 U.S. App. LEXIS 3930 (7th Cir. 1937).

Opinion

LINDLEY, District Judge.

Appellant, defeated in its suit to secure priority over the other creditors of the Spencer National Bank, of which appellee is receiver, upon its claim for $5,035.49,' contends that the court erred in not entering judgment as prayed.

Appellant was surety upon the bond of one H. W. Johnson as treasurer of the School Town of Spencer, Ind. As such official he deposited the school funds in the bank, of which he was assistant cashier, and, during the same period, the county treasurer kept his official deposits in the same institution. These deposits were made in pursuance of the United States banking act, 46 Stat. 809, 12 U.S.C.A. § 90, under which it is provided that any national bank may secure deposits of public money to the extent that state banking institutions may do so under the state law. The statutes of Indiana, sections 12611— 12635, Burns’ Ind.Stat.Ann.1926, provide that public funds may be deposited in banks in an amount fixed by proper official authorities. Under this law the bank was an authorized depository to the extent of $15,000. Deposits made wrongfully or in excess of the amount of the depository bond constitute embezzlement.

On July 6, 1932, the county treasurer drew against his account in the bank a warrant or check for $14,539.98 in favor of the school treasurer, who immediately indorsed and deposited it in his official account. The county treasurer’s account was charged and the school treasurer’s credited with this amount.

On July 9 the township trustee drew against his account in the bank a warrant or check for $195.90 in favor of the school treasurer, who indorsed and deposited it in his account, the township account being charged and the school account credited with the amount.

These transactions resulted in a balance to the school treasurer’s credit at the time the bank closed, of $20,035.49, or $5,-035.49 more than it was authorized to receive.

Appellant as surety, having reimbursed the school authorities for this sum, subrogated, as it was, to the rights of the school authorities (United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co. v. Union Bank, 228 F. 448 [C.C.A.6]), brought this action. It contended in the District Court and insists now that the excess deposit constituted a trust fund belonging to the school treasurer and that it should, because of such character, be awarded priority in distribution of the bank’s assets: State ex rel. Symons v. Wells County Bank, 208 Ind. 543, 196 N.E. 873, 103 A.L.R. 611. There the bank was a lawful depository to the extent of $10,000. It received for deposit state funds in excess of that amount. The court concluded that such a deposit was in violation of the law; that the act of the bank in receiving it was unlawful; that the bank was bound to know the law and that under such circumstances it became a trustee ex maleficio for the use and benefit of the state. The court decided, therefore, that the title to the funds never passed and that as a result the creditors of the bank had no interest therein.

Appellant insists that this construction of the Indiana statute is a binding precedent controlling in the determination of appellant’s rights in liquidation of the bank’s assets. Appellee insists that appellant’s right must be determined irrespective of the statute in accord with the principles and doctrine of the national banking code.

National banks are instrumentalities of the federal government created for a public purpose, and, as such, necessarily, subject to the paramount authority of the United States. Any attempt by a state to define their duties or to control the conduct of their affairs is void if it conflicts with the laws of the national government and either frustrates the purpose of the federal legislation, or impairs the efficiency of these agencies of the government to discharge the duties for the performance of which they are created. The national banking code directs the comptroller to make a ratable dividend of the money of a banking association, and a state law directing the receiver of a bank which shall have become insolvent to give priority to the deposit of a savings bank, is an interference with the federal law, inasmuch as the state statute is entirely inconsistent with the federal statute. Davis v. Elmira Sav. Bank, 161 U.S. 275, 16 S.Ct. 502, 40 L.Ed. 700. There the court overruled the contention that the effect of the state statute was to make the savings bank, in the event of insolvency, the owner of a sum equivalent in amount to the sum of money by it deposited and thus to remove the applicability of the federal statute on the ground that this fund was no part of the assets of the bank. The court held that such result [710]*710would destroy the ratable distribution ordered by the Congress. The court commented, however, that where any particular contract is made by a national bank which from its nature may rise in time to title to a specific fund, such claim, if not in violation of the act of Congress, will be allowed, and that what at the time of insolvency belongs to the claimant, does not in fact belong to the bank. The court approved San Diego County v. California Nat. Bank (C.C.) 52 F. 59, where the fund received by the national bank, which the party depositing had no authority in law to deposit, was not a part of the assets of the bank. It approved likewise Massey v. Fisher (C.C.) 62 F. 958, where the court found that the facts made of the bank a trustee and that the fund, being held in trust, was not part of the bank’s assets.

In the later case of McClellan v. Chipman, 164 U.S. 347, 17 S.Ct. 85, 41 L.Ed. 461, the court found that a state statute of Massachusetts did not frustrate the purpose of the national banking act and distinguished the situation there presented from that ■ in the case previously cited. The court commented that the general rule is that national banks are subject to the state laws and are governed in their daily course of business far more by the laws of the state than by those of the nation; that their contracts, acquisition, and transfer of property, their right to collect their debts, and their liability to be sued for debts, are all based on state laws. It gave recognition to an exception to the general rule, saying that national banks after all are necessarily subject to the paramount authority of the United States and that any attempt by a state to define their duties is void when it frustrates the purpose and impairs the efficiency of national legislation: Other illuminating opinions appear in First National Bank of San Jose v. State of California, 262 U.S. 366, 43 S.Ct. 602, 67 L.Ed. 1030; Easton v. Iowa, 188 U.S. 220, 221, 23 S.Ct. 288, 47 L.Ed. 452; Yates v. Jones National Bank, 206 U.S. 158, 27 S.Ct. 638, 51 L.Ed. 1002; Scott v. Armstrong, 146 U.S. 499, 13 S.Ct. 148, 36 L.Ed. 1059.

Following these analyses, the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, in Fiman v. State of South Dakota, 29 F.(2d) 776, held that where a state deposits its funds in a national bank in an amount exceeding the ’limit prescribed by statute, the excess deposit is a trust fund.

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Bluebook (online)
90 F.2d 708, 1937 U.S. App. LEXIS 3930, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/american-surety-co-v-baldwin-ca7-1937.