Continental Bank & Trust Co. v. Apodaca

239 F.2d 295
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedNovember 15, 1956
DocketNo. 5368
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 239 F.2d 295 (Continental Bank & Trust Co. v. Apodaca) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Continental Bank & Trust Co. v. Apodaca, 239 F.2d 295 (10th Cir. 1956).

Opinions

MURRAH, Circuit Judge.

This appeal grows out of the appointment of the federal court receiver for the Inland Empire Insurance Company in the District Court of Utah, sustained in Inland Empire Insurance Company v. Freed, 10 Cir., 239 F.2d 289. After the institution of the federal court proceedings in Utah, but before the appointment of the receiver, the New Mexico State court appointed the Superintendent of Insurance of that State conservator of the $40,000 deposited by Inland Empire with the State Treasurer in pursuance of New Mexico law. Upon the appointment of the federal court receiver in Utah and his qualification in New Mexico, as provided by Section 754, Title 28 U.S.C.A., the receiver commenced this suit in the federal District Court of New Mexico to require the State Superintendent of Insurance to turn over all of the assets under his control to the Federal Court receiver.

The Superintendent answered, stating (1) that the $40,000 in his custody was deposited with the State Treasurer in pursuance of Section 58-5-4, N.M.S.A. 1953, in trust for the benefit of all the policy holders and creditors in the State of New Mexico, and being a trust fund, it was not an asset of Inland Empire; and (2) having been appointed conservator of the statutory deposit by order of the state court, he holds the same subject to the jurisdiction and control of that court. He then referred to the provisions of the New Mexico statute relating to the conservation of the deposit for the protection of the policy holders and creditors in the State of New Mexico, and prayed for a dismissal of the complaint.

[297]*297After hearing, the trial court sustained the motion to dismiss, apparently on the alternative grounds urged by the Superintendent-conservator to the effect that the statutory deposit was not an asset subject to the jurisdiction of the federal court receiver. And, in any event, the New Mexico court having first acquired jurisdiction and control of the statutory deposit by the prior appointment of the receiver, the federal court “could not oust the state court from jurisdiction.” The appeal is from a judgment of dismissal.

Of course if the $40,000 statutory deposit is not property or an asset of the Company, the federal court receiver is in no event entitled to possession or control of the same, and we have no need to resolve the jurisdictional conflict.

At all times material here, New Mexico law provided that no company should be licensed to transact a casualty insurance business in the state “unless it has first made a deposit with the state treasurer of New Mexico for the benefit of all of its policies issued covering risks in this state of $25,000.00 in securities * * See 58-5-4, N.M.S.A.1953, Repealed, Laws of 1955, Chap. 221, § 30. The record is not clear how the deposit happened to be in excess of the statutory requirement, but we may concede that the entire amount represented a trust fund for the sole benefit of the local policy holders and creditors, and subject to state law. It does not follow, however, that the Company was thereby divested of all interest therein and that it did not therefore represent an asset of the Company.

In his application for appointment as “conservator of assets” of the Company, the Superintendent spoke of the statutory deposit of United States treasury bonds in the face amount of $40,000, and prayed that he be “appointed conservator of the assets of the Inland Empire Insurance Company with power to take possession of all property and assets of the said Company within the State of New Mexico, including the $40,000 United States bonds on deposit with the State Treasurer * * *.” The order of appointment directed the Superintendent to take possession of all the property and assets wheresoever located and whatsoever kind of the Inland Empire Insurance Company. And, it was undoubtedly in pursuance of this direction that the conservator took actual possession of the statutory deposit which he now holds subject to the order of the court as an asset of the Company. The Superintendent and the New Mexico court thus treated the statutory deposit as an asset of the Company and we have no doubt about it, albeit subject to the laws of the State of New Mexico for the purposes for which it was deposited.

This brings us to the more troublesome question of jurisdictional conflict. The appellant-receiver attacks the validity of the order of the state court for lack of notice, and the trial court' did observe that the order was entered without notice to anyone except the Superintendent and State Treasurer. But, the state court is in possession of the res in a proceedings within its competence, and any collateral attack on its judgment must be made in that court. Lion Bonding & Surety Co. v. Karatz, 262 U.S. 77, 90, 43 S.Ct. 480, 67 L.Ed. 871.

Courts have long since resolved the conflict between state and federal courts of concurrent jurisdiction involving the same subject matter by decreeing that the first court whose jurisdiction and processes is invoked by the filing of a suit, is treated as in constructive possession of the res and authorized to proceed in the cause. Having thus acquired jurisdiction and possession, the property is thereby withdrawn from the jurisdiction of all other courts, except to the extent to which that court may determíne. Lion Bonding & Surety Co. v. Karatz, supra ; Harkin v. Brundage, 276 U.S. 36, 43, 48 S.Ct. 268, 72 L.Ed. 457; Gordon v. Ominsky, 294 U.S. 186, 55 S.Ct. 391, 79 L.Ed. 848; Penn General Casualty Co. v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 294 U.S. [298]*298189, 55 S.Ct. 386, 79 L.Ed. 850; Fischer v. American United Life Ins. Co., 314 U.S. 549, 62 S.Ct. 380, 86 L.Ed. 444. This principle of jurisdictional priority “is not restricted to cases where property has been actually seized under judicial process before a second suit is instituted, but applies as well where suits are brought to marshal assets, administer trusts, or liquidate estates, and in suits of a similar nature where, to give- effect to its jurisdiction, the court must control the property.” Princess Lida of Thurn and Taxis v. Thompson,-305 U.S. 456, 466, 59 S.Ct. 275, 280, 83 L.Ed. 285; see also Sharar v. Pollia, 10 Cir., 191 F.2d 116.

Adhering to this rule of “necessity”, see Covell v. Heyman, 111 U.S. 176, 182, 4 S.Ct. 355, 28 L.Ed. 390, the federal courts have assiduously refrained from interfering with state court processes where it attaches first in point of time. Gillis v. Keystone Mutual Casualty Co., 6 Cir., 172 F.2d 826,11 A.L.R.2d 455, Annotation, page 460. And, this is so even though the federal court may have appointed a receiver and taken actual possession of the res before the appointment of the state court receiver in the previously instituted proceedings. See cases collected Sec. 5, Annotation, supra, page 479. And, the converse is of course equally true. Sherburne v. Miami Coal Co., 109 Ind.App.

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Inland Empire Insurance v. Bair
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Inland Empire Insurance Company v. K. H. Bair
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Continental Bank And Trust Company v. R. F. Apodaca
239 F.2d 295 (Tenth Circuit, 1956)

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239 F.2d 295, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/continental-bank-trust-co-v-apodaca-ca10-1956.