Dorsey v. Reconstruction Finance Corp.

197 F.2d 468
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedJuly 1, 1952
Docket10551_1
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 197 F.2d 468 (Dorsey v. Reconstruction Finance Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dorsey v. Reconstruction Finance Corp., 197 F.2d 468 (7th Cir. 1952).

Opinion

SWAIM, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal by the plaintiff, V. A. Dorsey, from a judgment of the District Court dismissing plaintiff’s complaint and ordering that the defendant, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, should recover from the plaintiff, on its counterclaim, the sum of $9,171.63. Plaintiff had sued to recover the value of certain collateral and money allegedly withheld from him by the RFC long after the note, on which the collateral had been deposited, had been paid. (Plaintiff also sued for damages resulting from the RFC’s alleged mishandling of the collateral but during the trial the plaintiff expressly abandoned that -count of the complaint.) The Court found that instead of the note having been paid, there was still due to the RFC the amount for which the Court entered judgment.

The Court found the source of plaintiff’s indebtedness to be three thirty-day notes executed March 26, 1931, to the National Bank of the Republic of Chicago. These -notes were assigned on May 1, 1933, -after -maturity, to the RFC. Two of these notes, -one for $85,694.45, and the second for $5,--689.71, were executed by the plaintiff. The third note, for $1,329.69, was executed by Victor A. Dorsey & Co., but was personally ^guaranteed by the plaintiff.

The collateral in issue was pledged on ■the $85,694.45 note. That note provided specifically that this collateral was deposited and pledged as “security for the payment of this note and of all other lia-' ibilities” of the plaintiff to the bank, or to the legal holder of the noté.

The counterclaim of the RFC also sought judgments on two small judgments in the principal amount of, $1,000 which it had theretofore recovered against the plaintiff. After the RFC acquired these notes in 1933 it had held the securities pledged as collateral, selling portions of them from time to time, and had credited dividends, interest payments and the proceeds of sales from the collateral on such of the plaintiff’s notes and obligations as it saw fit. At the time of the trial all of the plaintiff’s obligations to the RFC had been fully paid except a balance of $9,171.63 on the $85,000 note, and judgment was entered accordingly.

Plaintiff, in appealing from this judgment, challenges the Court’s conclusions and insists that the RFC -then owed him $56,309.21. To sustain his contention the plaintiff relies primarily on three matters. First, plaintiff claims that $11,000 of the $85,000 note was unenforceable because it represented a loan to the plaintiff by the bank secured by shares of the bank’s capital stock in violation of 12 U.S.C.A. § 83, which provides that a national bank shall not make a loan on the security of shares of its own capital stock. The plaintiff, in 1930, purchased 60 shares of the capital stock of the bank. The purchase price of these shares was $11,000. Being then without funds, the plaintiff gave the bank his note for $11,000 as evidence of the debt and secured -the payment of the note -by depositing- as collateral the purchased shares. Subsequently this $11,000 was consolidated with other debts of the plaintiff in the $85,000 note and the bank stock was deposited as part of the collateral on the consolidated debt.

The Supreme Court has held that loans made in violation of this statute are not void, as plaintiff contends, but are enforceable. Deitrick v. Greaney, 309 U.S. 190, 60 S.Ct. 480, 84 L.Ed. 694, involved that part of this statute which prohibits a national Bank from purchasing or holding shares of its capital stock. In that case a bank, having illegally purchased shares of its own stock, devised and carried out a scheme for the purpose- of concealing its ownership. To accomplish this the bank *470 took the note of one of its directors with the secret understanding that there was to be no liability on -the maker of the note. The note was then substituted for the stock in the assets of the bank and the stock was assigned to one of the directors on the agreement and understanding. that it continue to be the property of the bank. The receiver of the bank brought suit against the maker of the note who contended that the note was not enforceable because the transaction was in violation of the statute. However, the Court held the director liable on his note saying, 309 U.S. at page 195, 60 S.Ct. at page 482, 84 L.Ed. 694, of the opinion:

“The obvious purpose of prohibiting the purchase by a bank of its own stock is to prevent the impairment of its capital resources and the consequent injury to its creditors in the event of insolvency. * * * These purposes would be defeated and the command of the statute nullified if a ■ director or officer or any other by his connivance could place in the bank’s portfolio his obligation good on its face, as a substitute for its stock il- . legally acquired, and if he remained free to set up that the obligation was, in effect, fictitious, intended only to aid in the accomplishment of the injury at ■ which the statute is aimed.”

Then, 309 U.S. on page 196, 60 S.Ct. on page 483, 84 L.Ed. 694, the Court also said:

“If respondent were free to set up the unlawful agreement as a defense and thus cast the loss from the unlawful stock purchase on the creditors of the bank in receivership, he would be enabled to defeat the purpose of the statute by taking advantage of an agreement which it condemns as unlawful. That, we think, the law does not allow.”

In D’Oench, Duhme & Co. v. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, 315 U.S. 447, 62 S.Ct. 676, 86 L.Ed. 477, the Supreme Court held that an accommodation note, given to a bank to enable it to carry the note in its assets instead of the defaulted bond which the maker of the note had sold to the bank, was enforceable by the FDIC which made a loan to the bank and which had acquired the accommodation note as part of the collateral securing the loan.

In Reconstruction Finance Corporation v. McCormick, 7 Cir., 102 F.2d. 305, this Court held that a loan by the RFC to a bank was not void although the loan was made in violation of 15 U.S.C.A. § 605d, which prohibited loans by the RFC to financial institutions with officers or directors who were also directors of the RFC. This Court, after reviewing many decisions, there said, 102 F.2d at page 322: “The rule which runs through all of these decisions is this, — Contracts made in violation of prohibitions of statutes similar to section 207 (Section 605(d)) are not void.”

We must hold here that the $11,000 loan to Dorsey, although secured by shares of the bank’s capital stock in violation of 12 U.S.C.A. § 83, was not void but was-enforceable. It was, therefore, proper that this amount and the interest thereon were-included by the RFC in its account against. Dorsey.

The second issue presented by Dorsey-involved the payment of principal and interest on the note for $5,689.71 by the application by the RFC of the proceeds of the collateral deposited on the $85,000 note. Dorsey contends (1) that the $5,000 note was barred by the statute of limitations,, and (2) that he never authorized the application of the proceeds of the collateral to the payment of this note. It is true that the statute of limitations had run on this note before this action was commenced and it is also true that the plaintiff’s collateral had all been deposited on the $85,000 note.

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197 F.2d 468, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dorsey-v-reconstruction-finance-corp-ca7-1952.