Cassel v. Security Trust Co.

393 S.W.2d 443, 1965 Mo. LEXIS 747
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJuly 12, 1965
DocketNo. 51114
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 393 S.W.2d 443 (Cassel v. Security Trust Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cassel v. Security Trust Co., 393 S.W.2d 443, 1965 Mo. LEXIS 747 (Mo. 1965).

Opinion

HOUSER, Commissioner.

Action by Dr. Melvin A. Cassel, successor trustee under the will of George B. Fleischman, deceased, against Security Trust Company, a banking corporation, to recover $85,955.

Security filed a motion to dismiss on the ground that the action is barred by limitations [§ 516.120(1), V.A.M.S., or in the alternative, § 516.120(4) or (5), V.A.M.S.] and that the petition fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.

The circuit court sustained the motion to dismiss on the theory that the action is barred by limitations [§ 516.120(1)], and dismissed the petition with prejudice. Plaintiff has appealed from the judgment of dismissal.

On this appeal both parties have briefed both points raised in the motion to dismiss. We pass over the point on limitations, preferring to consider first the meritorious, central question in this case: whether the petition states a claim upon which relief can be granted.

[444]*444Plaintiff’s first amended petition contained the same allegations of fact made in the first amended petition in plaintiff’s action against Mercantile Trust Co., Mo.Sup., 393 S.W.2d 433, decided concurrently herewith, to which reference is made, with these additions:

An allegation that Security Trust Company resulted from a merger of Mutual Bank & Trust Company (referred to in the suit against Mercantile) and Security National Bank Savings & Trust Company, effective May 29, 1958, in which merger Security became liable for the debts and obligations of Mutual.

Allegations that at the time Rosenblum presented to Mutual the first of the checks drawn on Mercantile totaling $60,725 Mutual knew that partial distribution had been made in the Fleischman estate “for in March 1952 Rosenblum as Trustee under Trust A and as Trustee under Trust B had opened accounts with Mutual Bank with initial deposits of Forty Thousand Dollars ($40,000.00) in the Trust A account and Sixty Thousand Dollars ($60,000.00) in the Trust B account”; that at that time Mutual knew of the provisions contained in Fleischman’s will, and knew that it was not in the usual and customary practice of probate courts to authorize substantial partial distributions of the assets of an estate until all claims against the estate had been paid, and “knew that on April 11, 1953 and for many years prior thereto Rosenblum individually was heavily indebted to it.”

Allegations that on receipt of the check for $2,000 (the first of the items totaling $60,725) Mutual issued its cashier’s check payable to Irl B. Rosenblum in that sum and that on receipt of the other checks referred to in that list paid the amount thereof to Rosenblum in cash; that the presentation and the request on April 11, 1953 was such an unusual, irregular and abnormal practice as to arouse on the part of Mutual, in the light of its knowledge and experience, the suspicion that Rosenblum intended to misappropriate the proceeds of the check; that Mutual should have either refused to cash the check or made appropriate inquiry, and the presentation of two additional checks in the same amount on April 14 and 16, 1953 made it mandatory to make appropriate inquiry before cashing said checks.

Allegations that Mutual “had notice on April 11, 1953, prior to its issuing its cashier’s check to Rosenblum individually in exchange for a check drawn by Rosenblum as Executor payable to himself individually, that Rosenblum intended to misappropriate the same, and that in the alternative Mutual had notice of the intended misappropriations not later than April 16, 1953, at which time it had cashed three such checks, each in the amount of $2,000.

An allegation that commencing August 3, 1953, and ending November 12, 1954, Rosenblum presented checks drawn on Mutual payable to cash, signed by him “Irl B. Rosenblum Trustee U/W of G. B. Fleisch-man, Trust B,” totaling $25,040, as follows:

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Bluebook (online)
393 S.W.2d 443, 1965 Mo. LEXIS 747, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cassel-v-security-trust-co-mo-1965.