Eckerson v. Utter

7 F. Supp. 201, 1934 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1591
CourtDistrict Court, D. Idaho
DecidedMay 30, 1934
DocketNo. 1808
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 7 F. Supp. 201 (Eckerson v. Utter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Idaho primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Eckerson v. Utter, 7 F. Supp. 201, 1934 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1591 (D. Idaho 1934).

Opinion

CAVAN AH, District Judge.

The plaintiff, as receiver of the Boise City National Bank, brings this action against the-defendant to recover possession of' certain [202]*202bonds alleged to have been pledged to tbo defendant by the bank as security for deposits made in the bank, and to enjoin the transfer and disposal of them.

On July 31,1932, by order of its board of directors, the bank was closed and the Comptroller of the Currency took charge of its affairs. The defendant is a clerk of the state district court and ex officio auditor of Ada county, and while as such clerk deposited in the bank moneys paid to him which were carried in the name of “Stephen Utter, Clerk of the District Court.” These moneys were amounts paid to the clerk by persons as fees, costs, alimony, awards, and as cash bonds in civil eases pending in the state district court.

About September 26, 1931, the bank and the defendant orally agreed that the bank would secure all deposits made or to be made by the 'defendant by pledging the bonds and assets in controversy, and thereafter, about November 20, 1931, by order of its board of directors, authorized and instructed its cashier to deliver to the defendant the bonds in question for the purpose of securing such deposits. At the time the bank closed there was on deposit therein in the account of the defendant the sum of $18,968.52, of which $7,-074.17 was paid to the defendant by the petitioner, the Boise Community Hotel Company, in the case of Boise Community Hotel Company v. Cramer et al., and the sum of $9^652.-61 paid to him by the petitioner First National Bank of Idaho, in the case of First National Bank of Idaho v. Ball et al., as awards, and the sum of $2,241.74 as alimony and costs and fees in other cases.

The validity of the agreement under which the bonds were pledged to the defendant is challenged, as it is urged that national banks lack power to pledge their assets to secure deposits, and therefore the pledge was ultra vires and void.

At the threshold there is a controversy as to the jurisdiction of the court for solution; The defendant and petitioners, the First National Bank of Idaho, Ralph Falk, and the Boise Community Hotel Company, assert that as the moneys deposited by the clerk in the bank were funds paid to him as clerk by the petitioners as awards, and as fees, costs, and alimony paid by others, in eases pending in the state district court prior to the bringing of the present action, and that the bonds pledged by the bank as security were matters over which the state court has first acquired jurisdiction in the cases therein pending, the federal com't should therefore decline jurisdiction of the subject-matter involved. In opposition the receiver urges' that the subject-matter of the present action and those pending in the state court is not the same and docs not establish exclusive jurisdiction of the state court, as the present action involves the solo question of the right of the clerk to hold the bonds as security which is a matter between him and the bank, while in the suits in the state court the matters involved are not the pledging by the bank of the securities or whether the parties had any right to enforce the pledge. If the view of the receiver is accepted we must go further, as the court would have jurisdiction to determine the question as to whether the bank was authorized to pledge assets to secure the deposits.

It is important to bear in mind that the question in the present case is the right to the possession of the bonds pledged by the bank as security and restraining the transfer and disposal of them. That is the only relief prayed for in the bill. Then have the bonds been seized and taken into the jurisdiction of the state court in the actions pending there so that they are withdrawn from the judicial power of the federal court to take them into its possession? The nature of the actions pending in the state court is the disposition of moneys paid into that court by litigants which are held by the clerk under orders of the court. Those funds, no doubt, axe in the custody and possession of that court wherever they may be. The bonds pledged as securities are held by the defendant. And it is that situation to which wo must address ourselves and to which the decision of the court is confined.

The determination of the question of jurisdiction requires first a disposal of the principal question as to the power of a national bank to pledge assets to secure deposits and the nature of such deposits, for if the bank did not have legal authority to- pledge assets, which are the subject-matter of the present controversy, then the bonds pledged wore never legally out of its possession and could have no relation to the deposits and could not be drawn into the custody or possession of the state court in the actions there pending which involve solely a controversy as between the litigants in those actions over the money deposited in the cases. It is therefore apparent that the issues are different in the actions in the state court from the one involved here, and the subject-matter is not identical. Under such circumstances there would be no infringement of the jurisdiction requiring the invoking of the rule that the court having first acquired jurisdiction should retain it to the -exclusion of all others.

A national bank prior to the 1930 [203]*203amendment could not legally pledge assets- to secure funds of a state or of a political subdivision thereof, and since then it can do so only if it is located in a state in which state banks are so authorized. The amendment of 1930 (13 USCA § 90), which provides, “Any association may, upon the deposit with it of public money of a State or any political subdivision thereof, give security for the safekeeping and prompt payment of the money so deposited, of the same kind as is authorized by the law of the State in which such association is located in the case of other banking institutions in the State,” limits the power of national banks to pledge assets to secure deposits “of public money of a State or any political subdivision thereof * * * as is authorized by the law of the State in which such association is located in the case of other banking institutions in the State.” This is the recent interpretation of the National Banking Act by the Supreme Court in the recent eases decided of City of Marion v. Sneeden, Receiver, et al., 291 U. S. 262, 54 S. Ct. 421, 423, 78 L. Ed. 787, and Texas & Pacific Railway Co. v. Pottorff, Receiver, 291 U. S. 245, 54 S. Ct. 416, 78 L. Ed. 777, and the pledging of assets of a national bank other than is authorized in the amendment is held to be ultra vires and void, and “its receiver is entitled to recover them unconditionally in order that they may be administered for the benefit of the general creditors of the bank.” City of Marion v. Sneeden, supra. With the 1930 amendment and the interpretation placed on it by the Supreme Court in mind, we must refer to the laws of Idaho to ascertain if state banks are given power to pledge their assets to secure the deposits of public moneys of the state or of any political subdivision thereof. Idaho state banks are possessed with the power of pledging assets to secure “any deposits of moneys of the United States and public funds deposited in accordance with the provisions of any depository act of this state,” as section 25-705 of I. C. A. provides: “Giving security for deposit prohibited.

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Related

Hadlock, State Bank Com'r v. Callister.
39 P.2d 1082 (Utah Supreme Court, 1935)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
7 F. Supp. 201, 1934 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1591, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/eckerson-v-utter-idd-1934.