Attorney General Ex Rel. State Banking Commissioner v. National Bank

61 N.W.2d 804, 338 Mich. 610
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 29, 1953
DocketDocket 64, Calendar 45,913
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 61 N.W.2d 804 (Attorney General Ex Rel. State Banking Commissioner v. National Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Attorney General Ex Rel. State Banking Commissioner v. National Bank, 61 N.W.2d 804, 338 Mich. 610 (Mich. 1953).

Opinion

Dethmers, C. J.

This is quo warranto brought here to challenge the right of defendant National Bank of Detroit to establish and operate a branch at 27637 Grand Biver avenue in the city of Livonia. The case is submitted on pleadings and stipulation of facts going to the merits and defendant’s motion to> dismiss for lack of jurisdiction.

Plaintiffs allege that relator Bank of Livonia, a State bank, was in operation in Livonia when defendant established the branch in question there. They contend that, accordingly, defendant was precluded therefrom by the following statutory provisions :

“The conditions upon which a national banking association may retain or establish and operate a branch or branches are the following; * * *
*612 “(c) A national banking association may, with the approval of the comptroller of the currency, establish and operate new branches-: (1) Within the limits of the city, town or village in which said association is situated, if such establishment and operation are at the time expressly authorized to State banks by the law of the State in question; and (2) at any point within the State in which said association is situated, if such establishment and operation are at the time authorized to State banks by the statute law of the State in question by language specifically granting-such authority affirmatively and not merely by implication or recognition, and subject to the restrictions as to location imposed by the law of the State on State banks.” 12 USCA, § 36.
“Any bank having a capital of at least $50,000.00 may, with the written approval of the commission, establish and operate a branch or branches within a village or city other than that in which it was originally chartered: Provided, That the village or city in which it is proposed to establish and operate a branch is located in the same county in which the parent bank has its principal office or, if not in said county, then within 25 miles of said parent bank or in a contiguous county at a point more than 25 miles from the parent bank, if such county has no bank: Provided further, That no such branch shall be established in a city or village in which a state or national bank or branch thereof is then in operation.” CL 1948, § 487.34 (Stat Ann 1951 Cum Supp § 23.762.)

- Touching- this Court’s jurisdiction, defendant cites First National Bank in St. Louis v. Missouri, 263 US 640 (44 S Ct 213, 68 L ed 486); Territory v. Lockwood, 3 Wall (70 US) 236 (18 L ed 47); Ex Parte Shockley, 17 F2d 133; and People, ex rel. Trombley, v. Auditor General, 23 Mich 471 (9 Am Rep 94), for the proposition that State courts have no authority or jurisdiction, by quo warranto or otherwise, to call a Federal corporation or officer to account for acts *613 alleged to be in excess of powers granted by, or for • alleged violations of, Federal law. Conceding the • validity of that proposition, plaintiffs urge its inapplicability on the ground that presented here is a question of violation of State rather than Federal law, citing as authority for that contention and for the right of enforcement and vindication of State law by State courts against ágencies constitutionally created by Federal law. Attorney General v. First National Bank of Bay City, 192 Mich 640, reviewed in First National Bank of Bay City v. Attorney General, 244 US 416 (37 S Ct 734, 61 L ed 1233); First National Bank in St. Louis v. Missouri, supra; Ex parte Worcester County National Bank, 279 US 347 (49 S Ct 368, 73 L ed 733, 61 ALR 987); and Anderson National Bank v. Luckett, 321 US 233 (64 S Ct 599, 88 L ed 692, 151 ALR 824).

First National Bank of Bay City involved, as stat-. ed in the report of that ease, “the validity of provisions in the Federal reserve bank act authorizing national banks to act as trustees, et cetera, when al-, lowed by the reserve board and not in contravention of State law; also the jurisdiction of the State court. to determine the authority of such banks in proceedings akin to' quo warranto.” Worcester County National Bank involved a like situation and statutory provision. It was held in Worcester that the act of congress limiting national banks in certain respects to acts “not in contravention of State law” enjoins upon the federally created corporation “complete conformity with the State law” (syllabus) and in Bay City that in so doing “Congress impliedly, if not expressly, authorized the institution and conduct in-the State Supreme Court of proceedings in the nature of quo warranto to test whether the exercise of • such function by a national bank is consistent with • State law.” (Syllabus.) First National Bank in St. Louis was decided at a time (1923) when Federal law *614 made no provision for establishment of branches by national banks. The supreme court of the United States held that enforcement of the State act, theretofore construed by the State supreme court to prohibit national as well as State banks from establishing branches, constituted a valid exercise of State power and that national banks were subject thereto because it did not (656) “interfere with the purposes of their creation, tend to impair or destroy their efficiency as Federal agencies or conflict with the paramount law of the United States”; and, further, that (660) “since the sanction behind it (the State act) is that of the State and not that of the National Government, the power of enforcement must rest with the former and not with the latter.” Anderson National Bank, in which jurisdiction of the State court was not questioned, was of the same import as St. Louis to the effect that a State could make applicable to national banks a law providing for the administration of abandoned bank deposits so long as that was not in conflict with any Federal law.

To summarize the holdings of the above cases, it appears that when, as in St. Louis and in Anderson, there is no Federal law governing the subject and the State act undertaking to do so in no wise conflicts with paramount Federal law or with the purposes for which the federally created agency was established, the latter is subject to the State law and enforcement thereof in the State courts; and that when, as in Bay City and in Worcester, congress has expressly delegated to the States the power to legislate in the field and the States have done so, then, as said in St. Louis, the State courts may enforce the applicable law because in so doing they are not enforcing Federal but State law and, as said in Bay City, in leaving the matter to be governed by State law congress has impliedly conferred upon State courts the power to enforce it.

*615 Unlike St. Louis and Anderson,

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Bluebook (online)
61 N.W.2d 804, 338 Mich. 610, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/attorney-general-ex-rel-state-banking-commissioner-v-national-bank-mich-1953.