In re Liquidation of Delta Security Bank & Trust Co.

327 So. 2d 163, 1976 La. App. LEXIS 4797
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 4, 1976
DocketNo. 5332
StatusPublished

This text of 327 So. 2d 163 (In re Liquidation of Delta Security Bank & Trust Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Liquidation of Delta Security Bank & Trust Co., 327 So. 2d 163, 1976 La. App. LEXIS 4797 (La. Ct. App. 1976).

Opinion

DOMENGEAUX, Judge.

On January 19, 1973, pursuant to a resolution of its Board of Directors, and after petitioning the Commissioner of Financial Institutions of the State of Louisiana, the Delta Security Bank and Trust Company of Ferriday, Concordia Parish, Louisiana, was closed and placed in receivership by order of the Seventh Judicial District Court in and for Concordia Parish. The following day the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation accepted appointment as receiver and liquidator of the bank and has continued in that capacity to date.

As receiver and liquidator the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (hereinafter referred to as plaintiff) proceeded with the task of liquidation and distribution of the bank’s assets.1 On November 30, 1973, the District Court approved an ex parte motion by plaintiff to pay a dividend of seventy per cent of the claims of the depositors and unsecured creditors. Plaintiff did not advertise its intent to make this interim distribution, and there was no opportunity for opposition to this plan of disbursement. No interest was paid to the depositors and unsecured creditors for the period of approximately eleven months during which their claims had been unsatisfied. The actual distribution of the seventy per cent dividend was made on December 10, 1973. However, all deposits of the bank’s directors were frozen by plaintiff pending a separate suit against the former for alleged negligent management of the bank’s affairs. (This latter suit is not before us and we therefore do not concern ourselves with its status).

On March 19, 1975, plaintiff petitioned the court for permission to pay all depositors and other creditors interest at the rate of 7% per annum on the principal amount of their claims from the date of commencement of the receivership until the date of the initial 70% dividend. Plaintiff also requested that it be allowed to pay a second dividend consisting of the remaining 30% of the principal amount of the claims of depositors and creditors, including interest at the rate of 7% per annum from the date of commencement of the receivership to the date of actual payment of said final dividend.

The bank’s directors filed an opposition to plaintiff’s petition seeking to block payment of the 7% interest on either the first or second dividends. The directors further sought a release of their deposits and a termination of the receivership.

The Court ordered a distribution of the 30% dividend constituting a final satisfaction of the claims of the depositors and creditors and referred the matters of the interest payments, release of the directors’ deposits, and termination of the receivership to the trial on the merits. The second distribution was properly advertised and the judgment ordering it was homologated [166]*166without opposition as to the distribution itself. However, the claimants accepted payment with reservation of their rights to interest on this final 30%. The second dividend was paid on April 10, 1975.

After a trial the District Judge ordered plaintiff to pay interest at the rate of 7% per annum on the principal amount of the second 30% dividend for the period from January 18, 1973 to April 10, 1975. The trial judge ruled, however, that no interest was due on the initial 70% dividend since this payment was accepted without any reservation of rights to interest. The District Judge further ordered that the directors be paid 100% of their deposits, but inasmuch as he had denied the other depositors’ claims for interest on the initial 70% dividend, he allowed payment of interest upon only 30% of the deposits returned to the directors. Finally, he ruled that the receivership should be terminated as soon as the aforementioned orders could be executed.

From that portion of the judgment denying the depositors interest on the initial 70% dividend and from the order terminating the receivership, the plaintiff has appealed. Two of the opponents have answered the appeal requesting that the interest on the 70% dividend be paid only to them, as directors, and not to the remaining depositors and creditors.

There are essentially three questions which must be answered by this appeal:

First, did the depositors and creditors waive their rights to interest on the initial 70% dividend?

Second, are the directors, whose deposits were frozen throughout the period of the receivership, entitled to interest on the total amount of their deposits?

Third, should the receivership be terminated at this time?

The trial judge based his finding of waiver of rights to claim interest by the depositors and creditors on the first 70% distribution upon the three major cases of Liquidation of Canal Bank and Trust Company, 211 La. 803, 30 So.2d 841 (1947); Bank of Baton Rouge v. Hart Estate, 216 La. 603, 44 So.2d 311 (La. 1950); and In Re Interstate Trust and Banking Company, 222 La. 979, 64 So.2d 240 (La.1953). Each of these cases involved factual situations similar to the one presently before this court.In all three cases claims were being made for interest on those portions of the distribution which were approved and homolo-gated by the court. The Supreme Court stated in Canal Bank that:

. . judgments homologating accounts are final and have the authority of the thing adjudged.’ .... The judgments approving such accounts become ‘res judicata, and the issue so determined cannot be re-opened by way of opposition to a subsequent account rendered by the receiver.’ ”

The jurisprudential rule is clear that once the depositors allow the distribution to be approved by the judgment homologating it they waive all rights to any claims to interest due on the funds distributed. However, in the instant case there was never an homologation of the initial 70% distribution. As above noted, this dividend was paid upon ex parte motion by the plaintiff. There was never any advertisement nor were any potential opponents ever afforded proper notice. Therefore, we cannot say that the court’s order granting plaintiff’s motion for payment of the first dividend enjoys the status of a final judgment. We thus hold that the depositors are not estopped by res judicata from contesting the failure to pay interest on the first dividend.

However, even finding the initial distribution open to attack, another hurdle presents itelf as a possible bar to the depositors’ claim for interest on the first dividend. The three above cited cases all [167]*167took cognizance of Civil Code Article 2925 which reads:

“Art. 2925. Payment of interest presumed in release of principal
The release of the principal, without any reserve as to interest, raises the presumption that it also has been paid, and operates a release of it.”

Thus it becomes apparent that the depositors and creditors may have waived their rights to claim interest since they accepted payment of the first dividend without any reservations thereto, for the above cited code articles creates a presumption that the interest due has been paid. The effect of a legal presumption is set forth in Civil Code Article 2287 as follows:

“Art. 2287. Effect of legal presumption
Legal presumption dispenses with all other proof, in favor of him for whom it exists.

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Related

Liquidation of Canal Bank & Trust Co.
30 So. 2d 841 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1947)
Bank of Baton Rouge v. Hart Estate, Inc.
44 So. 2d 311 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1950)
In re Interstate Trust & Banking Co.
64 So. 2d 240 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1953)

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Bluebook (online)
327 So. 2d 163, 1976 La. App. LEXIS 4797, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-liquidation-of-delta-security-bank-trust-co-lactapp-1976.