Moses Lake State Bank v. Bell

223 P. 587, 128 Wash. 523, 1924 Wash. LEXIS 547
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 3, 1924
DocketNo. 18128
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 223 P. 587 (Moses Lake State Bank v. Bell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Moses Lake State Bank v. Bell, 223 P. 587, 128 Wash. 523, 1924 Wash. LEXIS 547 (Wash. 1924).

Opinion

Parker, J.

The plaintiff hank commenced this action in the superior court for Grant county against defendant Bell, as treasurer of that county, seeking an injunction restraining him from selling certain securities deposited with him by the plaintiff to secure deposits of county funds made by him with the plaintiff bank. The real controversy is over a claim of deposit of $2,500 made by the defendant which the plaintiff claims was never made so as to render it liable therefor. The plaintiff tendered to the defendant payment of all other deposits of county funds made with it. A trial upon the merits resulted in a decree denying to the plaintiff the relief prayed for, from which it has appealed to this court.

The controlling facts, as we see them, may be summarized as follows: Appellant’s banking house is located at Neppel, in Grant county, some, twenty miles or more from Ephrata, the county seat of that county. During the period in question, and for several years prior thereto respondent county treasurer kept on deposit a portion of the county funds in appellant’s bank; appellant at the same time keeping on deposit with respondent, as county treasurer, securities to secure such deposits, in compliance with § 5563, Bern. Comp. Stat. On September 28,1922, one Mackenzie, who was then employed by 'appellant to make collections and keep up its reserve, but who was not then an officer of appellant, applied to respondent, as county treasurer, at his office in Ephrata, for an increased deposit of county funds in appellant’s bank. Thereupon respondent drew a check against county funds on deposit [525]*525with, the Grant County Bank located at Ephrata. This check was for $2,500 and was made payable to the order of appellant, and was then and there delivered to Mackenzie by respondent. Mackenzie went immediately with the check to the Grant County Bank and asked for a draft for the amount of the check. The assistant cashier of that bank then told Mackenzie that it would help their exchange if he would send the check through appellant’s correspondent bank in Spokane and let it come through in usual course. Mackenzie then and there endorsed the check in blank as cashier of appellant bank, though he was not such cashier, and enclosed it with a credit slip in a stamped and sealed envelope addressed to the Fidelity National Bank of Spokane, that being appellant’s correspondent bank. Mackenzie testified that he then placed the stamped envelope containing the check and credit slip in a basket in the Grant County Bank used by that bank for outgoing mail. Thereafter appellant gave credit to respondent as county treasurer upon its books as for a general deposit in the sum of $2,500. There is nothing, however, in this record to show that appellant ever at any time gave to respondent any credit slip, or any credit in any passbook which respondent may have had, or any other writing, evidencing such deposit in appellant’s bank. In so far as the record speaks at all upon this question, it warrants the conclusion that no credit for this claimed deposit was ever evidenced other than upon the books of the bank, of which respondent was never advised. The check and the credit slip claimed by Mackenzie to have been placed in the sealed and stamped envelope and deposited in the outgoing mail box in the Grant County Bank never went into the mail, never reached appellant’s correspondent in Spokane, and never was in appel[526]*526lant’s banking house at Neppel; nor was it ever in possession of any officer of appellant.

On the 10th day of October, 1922, the Grant County Bank passed into the hands of the state supervisor of banking because of its insolvency. Thereafter the stamped and sealed envelope containing the check and credit slip, claimed to have been deposited in the Grant County Bank’s outgoing mail basket by Mackenzie on the day he received the check, was found in the banking room of the Grant County Bank. How it came to the place at which it was found, and where it had been since Mackenzie claims to have put it in the basket of the outgoing mail of that bank, we are not informed. About the time of the giving of the cheek in question by respondent to Mackenzie, or soon thereafter, appellant, evidently in anticipation of the increase of the deposit of county funds in its bank, sent to respondent securities of the face value of $2,000, as further security for the deposit of county funds in its bank. The record does not warrant any assumption in this connection other than that such additional deposit of securities by appellant with respondent was general and not special; that is, that such securities were not deposited to secure any particular deposit of county funds in appellant’s bank.

On or about October 18, 1922, after the stamped envelope containing the check had been found in the banking room of the Grant County Bank, appellant charged off of its books the credit of $2,500 which had theretofore been entered as a deposit credit in favor of respondent. Thereafter, by check drawn in due form by respondent and presented to appellant at its bank, appellant refused to honor such check for the full amount for which it was drawn, which was the entire balance of county funds claimed by respondent to be [527]*527in appellant’s bank; that is, appellant refused to recognize the $2,500 claimed deposit credit in favor of respondent and to that extent refused to honor the check. Thereafter respondent threatened to sell the securities deposited with him by appellant, in satisfaction of his claimed deposit of $2,500. Thereupon this action was commenced seeking the restraining of such sale, resulting as above noticed.

It is contended in behalf of appellant that respondent’s claimed deposit of $2,500 represented by the check delivered to Mackenzie, was never consummated so as to render appellant liable therefor. We have seen that the claimed deposit was not made at appellant’s bank, nor was the check or the proceeds thereof ever received at appellant’s bank; more than that, it was never delivered to any officer of appellant even away from appellant’s bank; nor, as we feel warranted in assuming, was respondent ever given any written evidence in the form of a credit deposit slip, a credit upon his pass-book or otherwise, for any such deposit. It seems to be well settled banking law that, in order to charge a bank with liability as for a general deposit, the deposit must have been actually made at the banking house of the bank sought to be so charged; and that when a would-be depositor of a bank places his funds, whether in the form of cash, checks or drafts, in the hands of another at some place away from the bank, even though, such other person be an officer of the bank, there is not thereby consummated a deposit chargeable as such against the bank, however much the would-be. depositor and such other person may have intended such act as consummating a deposit. Such act goes no farther in its legal effect than to make the person so receiving such funds an agent of the would-be depositor to cause such funds to be actually deposited [528]*528in the bank at its usual place of doing business. The rule is well stated in 1 Morse on Banks and Banking (5th ed.), in § 168, as follows:

“. . . unquestionably a cashier may follow up a delinquent or doubtful debtor of the bank, and exact payment from him at any time and place when and where he may be able to do so. But where money is offered for credit on a deposit account it is clear that it should not be accepted away from the bank. The bank does not contemplate any such method of receiving deposits, but has provided an entirely different system.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
223 P. 587, 128 Wash. 523, 1924 Wash. LEXIS 547, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/moses-lake-state-bank-v-bell-wash-1924.