Fidelity & Casualty Co. v. Union Savings Bank Co.

162 N.E. 420, 119 Ohio St. 124, 119 Ohio St. (N.S.) 124, 6 Ohio Law. Abs. 386, 1928 Ohio LEXIS 245
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedJune 20, 1928
Docket21025
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 162 N.E. 420 (Fidelity & Casualty Co. v. Union Savings Bank Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fidelity & Casualty Co. v. Union Savings Bank Co., 162 N.E. 420, 119 Ohio St. 124, 119 Ohio St. (N.S.) 124, 6 Ohio Law. Abs. 386, 1928 Ohio LEXIS 245 (Ohio 1928).

Opinion

Marshall, C. J.

The Union Savings Bank Company, of Yorkville, Ohio, was a successful bidder under the depositary law for a deposit of state funds, and to secure the deposit, as required by law, gave a bond signed by the 'Fidelity & Casualty Company, of New York, guaranteeing the return of the funds deposited, with interest thereon. Later the superintendent of banks took possession of the bank’s assets for liquidation, and at that time the bank had $25,000 of state funds. Demand was made upon the surety company by state officials to make payment of the amount due to the state under the bond, and *126 thereupon payment was made. The surety company presented the superintendent of banks a claim to have its obligation allowed as a preferred claim against the assets of the bank, and, upon the claim being disallowed, this action was brought in the court of Common Pleas of Jefferson county, praying an order on the superintendent of banks for allowance and payment to the surety company of its claim in full before payment of claims of general creditors. Judgment of the trial court was entered, upon the court sustaining defendant’s demurrer to the petition. The questions presented are: First, whether the state of Ohio by virtue alone of its sovereignty has a prior right to payment of its claim in full out of the assets of an insolvent bank in process of liquidation before payment of claims of general creditors ; and, second, whether the surety company, having paid the claim of the state in full, under its bond, is subrogated to the state’s right to priority, if any, in the distribution of the bank’s assets.

It will be stated at the outset that the conclusions we have reached upon the first proposition make it unnecessary to consider the second proposition.

The surety company makes the broad assertion that claims due to the state, however arising, are entitled to priority of payment, and that this is a prerogative right arising out of sovereignty. It becomes important, therefore, to inquire at the outset as to the meaning and characteristics of sovereignty. In it largest sense, and when applied to an absolute monarchy, it means supreme, absolute, uncontrolled, power to govern. Under any government of limited powers, sovereignty is the supreme power which governs the body politic. The quality and character *127 istics of sovereignty naturally depend upon the source of the power. Under monarchical government in remote periods the monarch claimed infallibility and divine rights. Such notions are so remote from the notions of sovereignty entertained under our own republican form of government that it would be idle to discuss or even refer to the sovereign powers of monarchical governments. The governments of the several states and the federal government are each sovereign, and yet the sovereignty of the states is essentially different from the sovereignty of the federal government. The one is less supreme than the other. The Supreme Court of the United States, in Chisholm, Exr., v. Georgia, 2 U. S. (2 Dall.), 419, 1 L. Ed., 440, this being the first case arising under the new Constitution, relating to sovereignty, laid down some fundamental principles which apply to the instant case. The court declared in that case that sovereignty is the right to govern. It drew the distinction between the sovereignty of European nations, which is generally ascribed to the ruler, and the sovereignty of our own nation, which rests with the people; pointing out that in those countries the sovereign administers the government, while in this country this is never true; that our citizenship constitutes the sovereignty and public officials are their agents. It was further declared, in substance, that their rulers have personal powers, dignities, and preeminences, while our officials have no such attributes, except those.which are conferred by the people. In other words, all power is inherent in the people, and the government has such sovereign power as the people have conferred upon it. That case clearly draws the distinction between citizens who have *128 equal political rights under our Constitution and the subjects of foreign countries whose rights are universally subordinate. Our forefathers in framing the new Constitution omitted to safeguard the rights of the people, and that omission was speedily corrected under the new Constitution by adopting a Bill of Rights in which they were elaborately set forth. One of the most familiar attributes of sovereignty is the right of eminent domain; that is to say, the right of the sovereign to use the property of its citizens where the public good or necessity requires, but it is guaranteed that no property can be taken without compensation being first paid. We know of no rights of the sovereign state which can be expressed or enforced where such enforcement results in trampling upon the rights of the individual citizen. Counsel have urged, and it must be conceded, that the principles of the common law as established in England are applied throughout the states of the Union in so far as those principles are applicable to our institutions. However generally they may have been applied in the past, it does not follow that they have universal application.

A distinction must be made between sovereignty and the rights of sovereignty. The rights of sovereignty are those which are deemed essential to the existence of government. Without attempting -to enumerate all such rights, it may be stated that they include the right of eminent domain, the right to levy taxes and assessments, to impose penalties, to inflict forfeitures, fines, and punishments, and to collect revenues for the support of the government. Without all such attributes the government could not exist, because no government can successfully func *129 tion without expense, and therefore the right to collect revenues; and no government can long endure without enforcing its authority, and therefore the right to impose fines, penalties, and punishments.

The diligence of counsel has brought to the attention of the court a great many authorities dealing with the question of the nature and extent of sovereign rights in the governments of the different states of the Union, and whether such rights result only from statutory and constitutional provisions. An examination of these authorities discloses that the courts differ in their notions of the source, nature, characteristics of sovereignty and sovereign rights. We shall not attempt to reconcile those decisions. Neither do we find it necessary in the instant case to. declare whether or not the rights of sovereignty, in a broad sense, can exist in the state of Ohio without being conferred by legislative enactment. It is not necessary to decide in the instant case the extent of those essential sovereign rights which are necessary to the very existence of government .in the state of Ohio. It is quite certain that many of the well-recognized essential sovereign rights do exist as the result of constitutional and statutory enactment.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
162 N.E. 420, 119 Ohio St. 124, 119 Ohio St. (N.S.) 124, 6 Ohio Law. Abs. 386, 1928 Ohio LEXIS 245, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fidelity-casualty-co-v-union-savings-bank-co-ohio-1928.