Bielaski v. Fordham Nat. Bank

14 F. Supp. 971, 1935 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1055
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedApril 29, 1935
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 14 F. Supp. 971 (Bielaski v. Fordham Nat. Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bielaski v. Fordham Nat. Bank, 14 F. Supp. 971, 1935 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1055 (S.D.N.Y. 1935).

Opinion

RIPPEY, District Judge.

This case was brought on in regular order on the law calendar before the court and jury. At the close of the trial, each party moved for a direction of verdict in its favor. Thereupon proceedings were had whereby the parties stipulated that the jury should be discharged and the case should be decided by the court upon the law and the facts as though the case had been tried before the court without a jury. The case was accordingly submitted to the court.

The defendant, Fordham National Bank in New York, was a national banking association with offices in the borough of the Bronx, New York City. After 1928 it merged with the Bronx Trust Company. The Benedict Metal Works, Inc., was a New York state corporation with principal place of business in the borough of the Bronx, city of New York, with an authorized capital stock of $100,000 divided into 5,000 shares of common stock of the par value of $10 each and 5,000 shares of preferred stock of the par value of $10 each, and such capital stock structure continued to August 1, 1928. Of the outstanding stock, John J. Sparler held 1,250 shares of the common stock and 600 shares of the preferred stock, and he was the vice president, treasurer, and general manager of the corporation: Marian G. Sparler, his wife, held 2,500 shares of the common stock and 500 shares of the preferred; Bernard Benedict held 100 shares of the common stock, and was president of the corporation and looked after its manufacturing activities; two other members of Sparler’s family held 1,190 shares of the common stock. Sparler was in sole charge and management of all of its financial activities. A petition in bankruptcy was filed against the corporation on August 24, 1928, and it was adjudicated bankrupt on September 8, 1928. On October 16, 1928, the plaintiffs were elected trustees in bankruptcy, qualified, and entered upon the discharge of their duties. Charles E. Scofield died prior to the trial, but Bielaski and Winter have continued as trustees.

Previous to 1928 Sparler had difficulty in financing the business of the company as well as his own business operations and was a large borrower both on his own account and on the account of his several corporations. He had business dealings with the defendant in 1927 on his personal account, and early in 1928 became a director of defendant, and continued as such director until shortly before the bankruptcy of Benedict Metal Works, Inc. In financing the Benedict Company, as well as various other enterprises in which he was interested, for at least three years before 1928, Sparler had resorted to means by which loans and discounts were obtained from several banks on spurious paper and on false financial statements. False receivables, discounted at one bank, would be taken up before maturity with the proceeds of direct loans or of false receivables discounted at other banks. Sparler was able to keep a step ahead of detection until March, 1928, whereupon the irregular transactions ceased. Upon substantially the same evidence as that presented in the case at bar, this court held in Bielaski et al. v. National City Bank of New York, 58 F.(2d) 657, that a payment of the Benedict Metal Work, Inc., to the defendant City Bank of $19,000 on March 24, 1928, was made while the Benedict Company was insolvent and was void as a preferential transfer under section 15 of the Stock Corporation Law of the state of New. York (Consol.Laws, c. 59). This decision was [973]*973affirmed (C.C.A.) 68 F.(2d) 723. On March 31, 1928, moneys owing to various hanks on the notes of the Benedict Company aggregated $282,500, and additional sums were owing on fictitious receivables, all „ with Sparler’s indorsement. Of this sum, $245,153.05 was paid to the Corn Exchange Bank, the Bronx Borough Bank, the Cosmopolitan Bank, the Mount Vernon Trust Company, and the American National Bank & Trust Company on unmatured obligations. The sum of $215,088.28 of moneys so paid was advanced to the bankrupt by Sparler and Freedman or the Frigate Corporation, which they owned. This transaction did not decrease the obligations of the bankrupt by the amount so advanced; there was merely a shift of creditors. On March 31, 1928, the bankrupt’s liabilities exceeded its assets on its own showing by nearly $100,000; its current liabilities exceeded its current' assets by $400,000. Included in its “current” liabilities were nearly $300,000 on unmatured paper of the above-mentioned and other banks. It was clearly upon the record here insolvent on that date within the meaning of the provisions of the Bankruptcy Act, and has been held by this court, as above indicated, to have been then insolvent withifi the meaning of the New York State Corporation Law, and in that holding I concur.

In this case, plaintiffs seek to recover three alleged preferential payments to defendant of $4,132.30 on May 11, 1928, arising out of a forged trade acceptance purporting to be an obligation of the National Brokerage Company, discounted by defendant on January 31, 1928, and due May 25, 1928, of $11,650 on May 24, 1928, arising upon a forged note of one Ball discounted March 12, 1928, and due June 21, 1928, and of $11,650 on June 20, 1928, arising out of another forged note of Ball discounted by defendant on March 12, 1928, and due June 21, 1928.

In January, 1928, Sparler, then being a director of defendant and a borrower on his own account, asked defendant for a line of credit for the Benedict Metal Works. The bank granted credit on the corporation’s direct line of $32,500 and agreed to discount a certain amount of customers’ paper. On January 16, 1928, the company opened a general checking account by the deposit of $28,608.26, which included $25,000 which it borrowed from defendant on its own paper. It borrowed the further sum of $7,500 on February 17, 1928, and this was credited to the account. On January 31, 1928, the proceeds of the trade acceptance was credited to the account, and on March 12, 1928, the proceeds of the two Ball notes were also credited. Deposits of other moneys belonging to the Benedict Company were made from time to time. Between January 16, 1928 and May 23, 1928, inclusive, 13 credits to the checking account were entered by defendant aggregating $148,864.06, twenty-four checks were charged to the account of an aggregate sum of $135,531.94, leaving a balance on May 23d of $13,332.12. On June 18, 1928, appears a deposit of $7,500 and on June 20th $12,000, which, added to the former deposits, makes an aggregate deposit to this account of $168,364.06. Between May 23d and June 20th, inclusive, nine withdrawals were charged, aggregating $32,-365.20, making the total withdrawals $167,-897.14, and leaving a balance to the credit of the Benedict Company on May 21, 1928, of $466.92. This balance was further depleted by withdrawals, so that, at the time of the adjudication in bankruptcy, there was a credit balance of $129.-84. These facts appear from the books of defendant and indicate the course of financial transactions between defendant and the bankrupt. Thus, as to all of these financial transactions, the relation of debt- or and creditor existed between the bank and the bankrupt, and the evidence clearly establishes that it was so intended by the parties. The two Ball notes were charged into this account on consent of the corporation before maturity. The trade acceptance was not paid by charging it into the account.

The board of directors of the bankrupt empowered Sparler to borrow the $32,500 and to procure discounts from the bank. Thus, upon borrowing the money and discounting the paper, even though it was spurious, the corporation became liable to the bank for repayment.

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Related

Bielaski v. Bronx County Trust Co.
83 F.2d 1006 (Second Circuit, 1936)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
14 F. Supp. 971, 1935 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1055, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bielaski-v-fordham-nat-bank-nysd-1935.