Halley v. First Financial Bank

519 So. 2d 764, 1988 La. LEXIS 41, 1988 WL 1929
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedJanuary 18, 1988
DocketNO. 87-C-1494
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 519 So. 2d 764 (Halley v. First Financial Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Halley v. First Financial Bank, 519 So. 2d 764, 1988 La. LEXIS 41, 1988 WL 1929 (La. 1988).

Opinion

WATSON, Justice.

When settlement of a minor’s claims for personal injuries was approved, the judgment required deposit of the net proceeds in a homestead and court permission for all withdrawals. Claiming ignorance of the terms of the judgment, the homestead association, now a bank, placed the minor’s funds in a “special savings certificate”; loaned money to the minor’s tutrix individually, using the savings certificate as collateral; and then seized the minor’s savings to satisfy the debt of the bankrupt tutrix. This litigation to recover the minor’s funds from the bank was initiated by her Under-tutor.

FACTS

Attorney Peter J. Abadie, Jr., handled a tort claim involving personal injuries to a minor, Angela Marie Mitchell. The trial court granted the petition of Delois Railey Mitchell, mother and natural tutrix of . the [765]*765minor, to compromise the claim for $85,900 and to execute a release for that sum. It was also ordered that:

“The net proceeds from this settlement will be deposited in a Metropolitan New Orleans Homestead and the funds may be withdrawn only upon approval by a Judge of this Court.”

After this judgment was rendered on September 5,1975, a savings certificate for $40,000 was purchased from First Homestead and Savings Association on September 25. The certificate was issued to: “De-lois Mitchell for the use of her minor daughter Angela Mitchell.” Prior to the certificate’s maturity date, September 25, 1979, two other savings certificates were successively substituted for the original. The only explanation for this procedure is a bank document noting “change of name”. The second certificate was issued to: “De-lois Mitchell, Trustee for Angela Mitchell (Minor) Beneficiary.” A third certificate was made payable to “Delois Mitchell, Administrator for the estate of Angela Mitchell (minor)”.

Neither attorney Abadie, who had accompanied Delois Mitchell when they purchased the $40,000 savings certificate, nor Patricia T. Thames, who handled the transaction for the Association, had any “independent recollection”1 of what transpired. Thames, now a branch manager of the bank, knew she opened the account only because she recognized her signature; she was not involved with the substituted certificates or the loans to Delois Mitchell. Abadie would normally have taken a copy of the judgment with him, and Thames’ normal procedure would have been to indicate any restriction on withdrawals. Another account was established at the same time for $7,545.43. The smaller account allowed unlimited withdrawals without penalty, whereas the $40,000 certificate of deposit had a substantial penalty for any withdrawal before expiration of its 48 month term.

The tutrix, Delois Mitchell, testified that the judge had instructed her in chambers that she could not use the money without his written permission. She did not remember Abadie carrying a copy of the judgment when they went to the homestead, but she thought he told the woman there that he would send her a copy. According to Delois Mitchell’s recollection, Abadie orally instructed the woman at the homestead that the $40,000 was to be put in a savings certificate and could not be used without court permission.2

On September 6, 1978, and October 3, 1978, Ms. Mitchell borrowed money from the Association signing her name individually on two promissory notes. She testified that she thought the interest on the savings deposit would pay off her loans.

According to Marla Kidd, vice-president of cost services for First Financial Bank,3 the loan procedure saved Delois Mitchell $2,599.56, because of the penalty for any early withdrawal from the savings certificate. Marla Kidd admitted that the two notes were signed by Delois Mitchell individually and not in a fiduciary capacity.

On October 1, 1981, Delois R. Mitchell was discharged in bankruptcy in the federal court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Listed in her statement of financial affairs in the bankruptcy proceeding was a suit on a promissory note by First Homestead and Savings Association in Orleans Civil District Court. The only security noted for First Homestead was a chattel mortgage.

On March 19,1982, $39,352 was transferred by the association from account number 500493, certificate number 57 (the savings certificate), to account number 10076, [766]*766the account of Delois Mitchell, to close out her combined loans. The conversion of Angela Mitchell s funds was done by an internal memorandum as follows:

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In 1984, the undertutor filed this suit for an accounting from the tutrix and First Homestead Savings and Loan Association, now First Financial Bank. The petition by the undertutor for restitution of the minor’s property alleged that First Financial Bank used the certificate of deposit purchased for the minor to secure loans to Delois Mitchell, contrary to the explicit instructions in the judgment; and that the certificate of deposit w,as illegally seized to satisfy the debt of Delois Mitchell despite the fact that her debt had been disclaimed in bankruptcy.

The trial court ordered Delois Mitchell to file an annual accounting but dismissed the claim against First Financial Bank on the basis of LSA-R.S. 9:738.4 Prior to its 1983 amendment, that statute allowed the custodian of gifts made to minors absolute investment discretion.

The court of appeal affirmed5 the trial court on the basis of LSA-R.S. 6:768,6 which recodified the laws relating to homesteads and building and loan associations and provided in pertinent part:

“... The association is not liable to beneficiaries, wards, or principals for moneys paid to their fiduciaries on account of such shares or savings accounts. Any such fiduciary shall have power ... to withdraw any such savings in whole or in part. The withdrawal value of any such savings, and earnings thereon, or other rights relating thereto may be paid or delivered, in whole or in part, to such fiduciary without regard to any notice to the contrary as long as such fiduciary is living. The payment or delivery to any such fiduciary or a receipt or acquittance signed by any such fiduciary to whom any such payment or any such delivery of rights is made shall be a valid and sufficient release and discharge of an association for the payment or delivery so made_”7

[767]*767A writ was granted to review the judgment of the court of appeal.8

LAW

LSA-R.S. 9:738, relied on by the trial court, applies only to funds given to minors, i.e., “gifts”. It is not relevant here where the funds were acquired as restitution for personal injuries.

The Undertutor relies on the Uniform Fiduciaries Law, which has been adopted in approximately one-half of the fifty states. It is found at LSA-R.S. 9:3801 through 9:3814 and covers relationships between fiduciaries and banks. The Uniform Fiduciaries Law provides in LSA-R.S. 9:38049

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519 So. 2d 764, 1988 La. LEXIS 41, 1988 WL 1929, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/halley-v-first-financial-bank-la-1988.