Farmers Banking & Trust Co. v. County of Edgecombe

144 S.E. 519, 196 N.C. 48, 1928 N.C. LEXIS 273

• Court: Supreme Court of North Carolina
• Decided: September 19, 1928
• Status: Published

Opinion

Stagy, C. J.

It is provided by C. S., 1389, that when the office of county treasurer is abolished, by the commissioners of any of the counties designated therein, and in lieu thereof one or more solvent banks or trust companies located in the county is appointed as financial agent of the county, “such bank .or trust company shall not charge, nor receive any compensation for its services, other than such advantages and benefit as may accrue from the deposit of the county funds in the regular course of banking.” Having been appointed financial agent of Edgecombe County for a term of two years under the provisions of this statute, it is. the position of the plaintiff that the commissioners may not thereafter and during said term, under sanction of legislative authority, change the terms of its appointment by demanding the execution of surety bonds and exacting the payment of 2% interest on public deposits, without “impairing the obligations of the contract” within the meaning of the constitutional provision on the subject. The position is untenable. The terms of plaintiff’s appointment are not fixed by contract with the commissioners of the county, but by the statute under which the appointment was made. Comrs. v. Steadman, 141 N. C., 448, 54 S. E., 269; Mial v. Ellington, 134 N. C., 131, 46 S. E., 961; S. v. Bank, 194 N. C., 436, 140 S. E., 38.

The contract clause of the Constitution of the United States, Art. I, .sec. 10, as interpreted in a number of decisions, is restricted to engagements, or contracts, “which respect property, or some object of value, and confer rights which may be asserted in a court of justice.” Dartmouth College case, 4 Wheat., 518. It has no application to statutes relating to public subjects within tbe domain of the general legislative power of the State, and involving the public rights and public welfare of the entire community affected by it. Newton v, Comrs., 100 U. S., 548, 25 L. Ed., 710.

In the instant case the action of the board of commissioners, which plaintiff questions, is fully authorized by section 19, chapter 146, Public Laws 1927, wherein it is provided that the county commissioners shall require of official depositories of county funds “a bond in some surety company authorized to do business in North Carolina in an amount sufficient to protect such deposits,” and further: “It shall be the duty of the board of commissioners to provide by recorded resolution for interest to be paid on public deposits at a rate to be determined by the board of commissioners.”

The judgment is correct and will be upheld.

Affirmed.