Chemical Nat. Bank v. Armstrong

65 F. 573, 28 L.R.A. 231, 1895 U.S. App. LEXIS 2246
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 5, 1895
DocketNo. 56
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 65 F. 573 (Chemical Nat. Bank v. Armstrong) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chemical Nat. Bank v. Armstrong, 65 F. 573, 28 L.R.A. 231, 1895 U.S. App. LEXIS 2246 (6th Cir. 1895).

Opinion

TAFT, Circuit Judge.

This case is before the court on two motions for a rehearing. The original opinion of the court filed at the last term is to be found in 16 U. S. App. 465, 8 C. C. A. 155, and 59 Fed. 372. The controversy related to the allowance of a claim for more than $300,000 in favor of the Chemical National Bank of New York, against David Armstrong, the receiver appointed by the comptroller of the currency to take charge of the assets of the Fidelity National Bank of Cincinnati, and to distribute the same in accordance with law to the persons properly entitled. The claim of the Chemical Bank was based on a loan made by it, as it supposed, to the Fidelity Bank, at the instance of E. L. Harper, the vice president of the Fidelity Bank. The loan was evidenced by a certificate of deposit for the amount of the loan, signed by the cashier of the Fidelity Bank, payable to E. L. Harper, and indorsed by him in blank. It was secured by a large amount of collateral, in the form of commercial paper. The amended answer of Armstrong, in the court below, averred that the alleged loan was made by E. L. Harper without authority, and that the funds obtained were never used by the Fidelity Bank, hut were taken by Harper to his own [574]*574use, and the liability of the Fidelity Bank for the loan, or any part of it, was therefore denied. The issue thus made was not pressed by counsel for the receiver, and was decided against him, both in the circuit court and in this court, in the original opinion filed in this case. The decision here was made practically without argument by counsel, and is disposed of in our former opinion in a sentence.

The main question discussed when the c'ase was first heard in this court was whether a creditor of the Fidelity Bank, holding collateral at the time of the declared insolvency, was obliged, in proving his claim against the insolvent bank, to reduce it by the amount collected on the collateral after the declared insolvency, and before the allowance of the claim. This court held that the claim of the creditor against the fund in the hands of the receiver must be allowed for the full amount due, with interest down to the time of the declared insolvency of the bank, without respect to the collateral then held or to collections made on it thereafter. No motion for a rehearing was made or granted upon this point, and the ruling of this court thereon remains unchanged.

Another question considered in the former opinion was in respect to the right of the claimant bank to have interest paid to it on dividends, the payment of which had been long delayed after'tin* time when similar dividends were paid to all the other creditors. Upon this question the appellant conceived that, by the former opinion of this court, injustice had been done to it by allowing too small an amount for interest, and a motion was therefore made on its behalf for a rehearing thereon. An examination of the record led us to grant the motion. Pending that motion, no mandate could, under the rules of this court, issue to the circuit court. While the case thus remained within the breast of this court, and completely subject to its control, the supreme court of the United States decided and announced its opinion in the case of Bank v. Armstrong, reported in 152 U. S. 346, 14 Sup. Ct. 572, in which it was held that the borrowing of money by a bank, though not illegal, is so much out of the course of ordinary and legitimate banking business as to require those making the loan to see to it that the officer or agent acting for the bank had special authority to borrow money, and that where no such special authority appears, and no ratification of the unauthorized act is shown, the bank is not liable. Therefore the receiver made a motion for a rehearing on the question whether there was any liability at all of the Fidelity Bank to the Chemical Bank on the claim asserted and heretofore allowed by this court, The action of the circuit court in allowing the claim at all was assigned for error on the cross appeal by the receiver, and, as already stated, though not pressed, was nevertheless before this court for decision. Because the court still had the case under its control, and no mandate had gone down, and because the decision of the supreme court of the United States seemed to throw a new light on the question heretofore decided against the receiver, it was deemed proper to grant the motion to rehear the question. The fact that the point was not pressed by counsel for the receiver at [575]*575the original hearing doubtless rested a discretion in this court to refuse to rehear the issue now urged. We would not by our action in this case wish to establish a precedent that this court will' rehear any case upon a question lurking in the record, and not pressed at the first hearing, because, in a subsequent decision of the supreme court, a principle is established by which such question must be decided in a different way, and a different conclusion in the casi; readied. In this case, however, the moving party is a trustee appointed, not by the beneficiaries, but by the comptroller of the currency, and we feel disposed to exercise the discretion which we have in favor of a trust fund thus administered, which we might not exercise in favor of parties representing their rights in person.

The supreme court, in its conclusion in Bank v. Armstrong, differs from the decisions of several state courts upon the same or kindred questions. In Bank v. Sullivan, 11 Wkly. Notes Cas. 362, the supreme court of Pennsylvania, used this language:

“We have no doubt, of the power of national banks to borrow money by means of negotiable paper, made or indorsed for their accommodation, and lliafi they are bound by the contract of their presidents or cashiers to indemnify tlie person who may have accommodated them with his credit, it is a usual banking operation, and, unless expressly prohibited, would be necessarily implied in every bank charter.”

In Barnes v. Bank, 19 N. Y. 152, a state bank of Yew York was held bound by a certificate of deposit issued by its cashier to evidence a loan made to the bank, although the cashier made the loan and used the proceeds for his individual purpose. The same principle was applied in. the case of Coates v. Donnell, 94 N. Y. 168. Barnes v. Bank is cited with approval by the supreme court of the United States in the case of Merchants’ Bank v. State Bank, 10 Wall. 604. The same principle is recognized and approved in Donnell v. Bank, 80 Mo. 165; Sturges v. Bank, 11 Ohio St. 153, 167; Rockwell v. Bank, 13 Wis. 653; Ballston Spa Bank v. Marine Bank, 16 Wis. 120, 134; Morse, Banks, § 160. The effect of the foregoing eases is that it. is within the usual course of banking business for a bank to borrow money, and that the generally recognized authority of the cashier or of the managing officer of the bank extends to making such loans, and that, therefore, any one dealing with such officer has the right to rely on the existence of such authority unless the contrary appears. That the right to borrow money is incident to the banking business is decided by the judicial committee of the privy council in Bank v. Breillat, 6 Moore, P. C. 152, 193-195, and by the court of appeals of Yew York in Curtis v. Leavitt, 15 N. Y. 9. The effect of the decision in Bank v.

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Bluebook (online)
65 F. 573, 28 L.R.A. 231, 1895 U.S. App. LEXIS 2246, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chemical-nat-bank-v-armstrong-ca6-1895.