Loudoun National Bank v. Continental Trust Co.

180 S.E. 548, 164 Va. 536, 1935 Va. LEXIS 228
CourtSupreme Court of Virginia
DecidedJune 13, 1935
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 180 S.E. 548 (Loudoun National Bank v. Continental Trust Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Loudoun National Bank v. Continental Trust Co., 180 S.E. 548, 164 Va. 536, 1935 Va. LEXIS 228 (Va. 1935).

Opinion

Holt, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

The issue here is in the jurisdiction of the State court.

The Loudoun National Bank is the holder and owner of a note for $15,000, subject to certain credits, of date May 15, 1930, executed by the Continental Trust Company, a [539]*539corporation chartered under the laws of the District of Columbia.

On March 15, 1932, the bank filed a petition for attachment in the Circuit Court of Fauquier county in which it charged that the trust company was the owner of certain real estate and tangible personal property there situated. Thereupon this attachment was duly levied as shown by the sheriff’s return of date March 27, 1933.

On April 5, 1933, John S. Bryan, receiver for the trust company, entered a special appearance for the purpose of protesting the jurisdiction of the State court. He set out the fact that the trust company was a corporation organized under authority of an act of Congress to do business in the District of Columbia, and that pursuant to authority conferred upon him by an act of Congress the acting Comptroller of Currency did, on the 28th of February, 1933, take possession of the trust company and appoint one Joseph A. Gamble receiver thereof. Gamble resigned, his resignation becoming effective on March 9, 1933, and on the 8th of March, 1933, the said acting comptroller appointed John S. Bryan receiver, said appointment to take effect at the close of business on the 9th of March, 1933. Bryan qualified and gave the necessary bond. He contends that he became thus vested with title to the real estate attached and is charged with the duty of administering the assets of the trust company for the benefit of all its creditors, and that for these reasons the State court is without jurisdiction, and this contention the trial court upheld.

The right of a domestic creditor in appropriate proceedings to apply the assets of a foreign insolvent corporation found within his State to the payment of his debt is settled by the recent case of E. W. Clark, Commissioner of Insurance of the State of Iowa, as Receiver of Federal Surety Company v. Harry O. Williard, W. W. Wheaton, and C. W. Hay, as Trustees of Gordon Campbell-Kevin Syndicate, 294 U. S. 211, 55 S. Ct. 356, 79 L. Ed. -, decided by the United States Supreme Court on February 4, 1935.

The facts in that case are set out in Clark v. Williard, [540]*540292 U. S. 112, 54 S. Ct. 615, 616, 78 L. Ed. 1160. The Federal Surety Company was an insurance company organized under the laws of Iowa and had received authority to do business in Montana. In September, 1931, the State of Iowa sued it alleging its insolvency and praying for a decree of dissolution and a distribution of its assets. An Iowa statute (Code 1931, section 8613-c1) provides that “the commissioner of insurance henceforth shall be the receiver and/or liquidating officer for any insurance company, association or insurance carrier.”

“On September 25, 1931, a decree in favor of the State was entered by default, and an amended decree on December 22nd of the same year. By these decrees the corporation was adjudged to have been dissolved on September 25, 1931; the commissioner of insurance, E. W. Clark, was adjudged to be ‘the successor to said corporation,’ and as such to hold ‘title to all property owned by Federal Surety Company at the time it so ceased to exist’; and liquidation was decreed in accordance with the statute.”

Before the date of dissolution the Montana creditors brought suit. Its first trial resulted in a non-suit which was reversed on appeal. After the decree of dissolution it came on to be heard again and on May 10, 1932, judgment in favor of the plaintiffs was entered by default, and on May 24, 1932, leave was given them to issue execution. This execution was junior in date to the Iowa decree of dissolution.

The Supreme Court, in its opinion of February 4, 1935 (294 U. S. 211, 55 S. Ct. 356, 357, 79 L. Ed. -), said that there was no uniformity prevailing among States where liquidators and creditors compete but that it was a State and not a Federal question.

“Every State has jurisdiction to determine for itself the liability of property within its territorial limits to seizure and sale under the process of its courts.”

“The Supreme Court of Montana [Mieyr v. Federal Surety Co., 97 Mont. 503, 34 P. (2d) 982] has reconsidered the conflicting claims of liquidator and creditors in the light of [541]*541that decision. It has held (the Chief Justice and an Associate Justice dissenting) that the local policy of the State permits attachments and executions against insolvent corporations, foreign and domestic; that the writs will not be halted though the effect of the levy may be waste or inequality; and that this rule will prevail against a statutory successor, clothed with title to the assets, just as much as against the corporation itself or the trustees upon dissolution or a chancery receiver.”

To the same effect is Zacher v. Fidelity Trust and Safety-Vault Co., 106 Fed. 593, 599, Circuit Court of Appeals, opinion by Judge Lurton.

The Newport News and Mississippi Valley Company was a Connecticut corporation with a roving charter. It leased the railroad of the Chesapeake, Ohio and Southwestern Company, a Kentucky corporation, whose property lay within the States of Kentucky and Tennessee. The Connecticut corporation, on March 16, 1894, by vote of its stockholders, decided to wind up its affairs. Application was made to a Connecticut court for the appointment of a receiver to take charge of the assets of the company under the provisions of a statute of that State. Zacher was appointed receiver and qualified on April 13, 1894. On the 14th of April, 1894, the president of the company executed to him a deed of general assignment conveying to him, as receiver, all the property of the corporation wherever situated, which deed was ratified by vote of the directors on May 8, 1894. On the following day it was acknowledged for registration and delivered to Zacher. Crouch, a Kentucky creditor, levied his attachment on May 1,1894, a date subsequent to Zacher’s appointment as a receiver but antecedent to the date of the delivery of the deed of assignment. An attachment of the Fidelity Trust and Safety-Vault Company was levied on May 11, 1894, a date subsequent to the deed of general assignment. Both of these attachments were upheld in Kentucky and were upheld by the Circuit Court of Appeals which said: “It would be a scandal upon the administration of justice if two co-ordinate courts, administering the same [542]*542law, should reach a different conclusion upon the same facts.” Certiorari was denied. (Zacher v. Fidelity Trust and Safety-Vault Co.), 181 U. S. 621, 21 S. Ct. 924, 45 L. Ed. 1032. See also, 53 C. J. 399.

Between those by whatever name, who, for the purpose of winding up its affairs, take over the assets of an insolvent corporation and its creditors, wherever they may be, the rights of such creditors are to be measured by the laws of their State, and not by the laws of the State of the insolvent corporation.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
180 S.E. 548, 164 Va. 536, 1935 Va. LEXIS 228, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/loudoun-national-bank-v-continental-trust-co-va-1935.