King v. Pomeroy

121 F. 287, 58 C.C.A. 209, 1903 U.S. App. LEXIS 4607
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedMarch 9, 1903
DocketNo. 1,798
StatusPublished
Cited by36 cases

This text of 121 F. 287 (King v. Pomeroy) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
King v. Pomeroy, 121 F. 287, 58 C.C.A. 209, 1903 U.S. App. LEXIS 4607 (8th Cir. 1903).

Opinion

SANBORN, Circuit Judge,

after stating the case as above, delivered the opinion of the court.

When a corporation becomes insolvent, all its property and all the liabilities of the guarantors of its obligations constitute a trust fund pledged to the payment of its debts. And in cases where through fraud or maladministration this fund is being diverted from those who are entitled to receive it, the power is vested in, and the duty is imposed upon, courts of equity to appoint a receiver, to direct him to convert these trust funds into money, and to distribute the proceeds among the creditors. Sawyer v. Hoag, 17 Wall. 611, 622, 21 L. Ed. 731; Hayden v. Thompson, 71 Fed. 60, 66, 17 C. C. A. 592, 598. Such a suit falls within the jurisdiction of a court of equity because it is a suit to execute a trust, because it avoids a multiplicity of suits by each of many creditors, and because the creditors have no adequate remedy at law.

The receiver appointed in such a proceeding is the hand of the court to gather and distribute the trust funds, and in the execution of its orders he has the power and the authority of the court, so that when it is said that the receiver in the action now in hand is without authority or power to maintain this suit, the real contention is that the Circuit Court of the district in which this insolvent bank was located had no jurisdiction to enforce the liability of its shareholders in the proceeding before it. There is nothing in the suggestion that the court may have a power to enforce the liability of the shareholders with which it cannot invest its receiver. If the court has the jurisdiction to enforce this liability, the receiver whom it appoints and directs to do so has all the power of the court to receive the money and to maintain actions to recover it. Receivers of courts of equity appointed in the judicial administration of the affairs of insolvents are, in the absence of restrictive statutes, empowered to enforce the rights of the creditors as well as the rights of the debtor, and there is no restrictive legislation in this case limiting the power of the receiver to maintain this action.

It is conceded in this case that the court below lawfully appointed the receiver, and that by his agency it rightfully collected the debts due to the bank, converted its tangible assets into money, and distributed its proceeds to the creditors. But the contention of counsel for the defendant in error is that the Circuit Court had no power by the hands of its receiver to collect the amount lawfully owing from the shareholders to the creditors, because the latter did not proceed to enforce this liability by the particular suit in equity pointed out by the provisions of section 2 of the act of June 30, 1876, c. 156 (19 Stat. 63 [U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 3509]), and because the Comptroller of the Currency has never authorized or directed the institution of this action against the shareholder.

A brief reference in chronological' order to the legislation which conditions the soundness of this position will best present the ques[290]*290tions it raises. The jurisdiction of the court below sitting in equity to appoint a receiver, and through him to administer the affairs of an insolvent corporation/to collect the trust fund pledged to its creditors, and to liquidate its debts, vested in that court when it was established. It existed long before the act of 1864, which authorized the formation of national banks, and the act of 1876, which granted the new remedy upon which counsel now insists, were enacted, and it still exists. It was general and comprehensive. It included all cases of fraudulent diversion or maladministration in which controversies arose between citizens of different states, and it is conceded that this was such a case. This jurisdiction required no special act of Congress to give it effect, but it attached to and embraced every corporation as it came into existence, unless by some act of Congress its extent was curtailed or diminished.

By the act of June 3, 1864, 13 Stat. 99, Congress authorized the formation of national banks, made certain provisions for the supervision and the liquidation of their debts, and then declared that they should not be subject to any visitorial powers other than such as were authorized by that act or were vested in the courts of justice. Rev. St. § 5241 [U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 3517]. The courts of justice had power to appoint receivers, and to liquidate the debts of all insolvent corporations, when this act was passed. That power necessarily remained in those courts, and embraced the national banks as they came into existence, except in those cases in which this jurisdiction was withdrawn from the courts by that or some other act of Congress. The act of 1864 provided that in certain cases the Comptroller of the Currency might appoint receivers to liquidate the debts of the national banks and to enforce the liabilities of their shareholders. Under this legislation the Comptroller became a special tribunal, with limited powers, authorized to act in cases specifically named in the statute, but in no other instances. In all other cases the power of appointment of receivers, of liquidation of the debts of the banks, and of enforcement of the liabilities of the shareholders remained in the courts as it existed before. The cases in which the Comptroller was empowered to appoint receivers and to enforce the liability of shareholders were: (1) Where the bank had refused to pay its circulating notes (section 5234, Rev. St. [U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 35°7])> (2) where it failed to maintain its capital at the minimum (section 5141 [page 3462]); (3) where it failed to maintain its reserve (section 5191 [page 3486]); (4) where it failed to redeem its circulating notes, or to select a place at which it would redeem them (section 5195 [page 3492]); (5) where it failed to dispose of its stock taken as security within six months (section 5201 [page 3494]); and (6) where it failed to pay up its capital stock and refused to gp into liquidation (section 5205 [page 3495]).

Conceding now that in all these cases in which the power to appoint a receiver and to enforce the liability of the shareholders was vested in the Comptroller by the act of 1864, that authority was thereby withdrawn from the courts under the familiar rule that, where the same act creates the right and prescribes the remedy for its enforcement, that remedy is exclusive, still the fact remains that [291]*291in all the cases in which no such power was vested in the Comptroller the jurisdiction and authority of the courts remained unimpaired and plenary. Thus, full jurisdiction still remained in the courts of equity to appoint a receiver to liquidate the debts of an insolvent bank and to enforce the liability of its shareholders where the transfers of notes or other evidences of debt, assignments of mortgages or other securities, deposits of money, bullion, or other valuable things, and payments of money were made by the national banks with a view to give preferences in contemplation of insolvency in violation of section 5242, Rev. St. [U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 3517], as well as where a bank had gone into voluntary liquidation under sections 5220 and 5221 [page 3503], and its funds were being fraudulently diverted from the cestuis que trustent.

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Bluebook (online)
121 F. 287, 58 C.C.A. 209, 1903 U.S. App. LEXIS 4607, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/king-v-pomeroy-ca8-1903.