National City Bank v. Guardian Trust Co.

27 Ohio Law. Abs. 584, 13 Ohio Op. 21, 1938 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 929
CourtCuyahoga County Common Pleas Court
DecidedNovember 14, 1938
StatusPublished

This text of 27 Ohio Law. Abs. 584 (National City Bank v. Guardian Trust Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
National City Bank v. Guardian Trust Co., 27 Ohio Law. Abs. 584, 13 Ohio Op. 21, 1938 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 929 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1938).

Opinion

By POWELL, J.

This case is one of one hundred and twenty cases now pending in this court involving, for all practical purposes the same questions of law. To all of the petitions so filed the defendant, the superintendent of banks has filed demurrers. Sixty-eight [585]*585of these petitions have been filed by the National City Bank of Cleveland as successor trustee. The allegations of these petitions being substantially identical, the parties have selected the instant case with the approval of the court for a ruling which shall be equally applicable to the other cases above referred to.

Plaintiff brings its action as successor trustee against the Guardian Trust Company and the superintendent of banks in charge of the liquidation of the Guardian Trust Company for an accounting and general equitable relief for acts detrimental to said trust estate alleged to have been committed by the Guardian Trust Company prior to the taking of possession by the superintendent of bauks.

After making the -necessary inducement allegations, the petition alleges in part:

“Losses have been caused by said trust by breaches of trust committed by said trust company during its trusteeship, the extent of which plaintiff does not know, said breaches consisting, among ether things, of the following practices:
“1. Acting in trust affairs, so as to bring its private interests into antagonism or possible conflict with its trust duties,
“2. Dealing, as trustee of said trust, with itself in its private capacity and/or in the ■capacity of trustee of other trusts of which it was trustee,
“3. Making secret personal profit out of its dealings with said trust,
“4. Buying for said trust, its own private property or securities whose sale it had a private interest in promoting, and “5. Failing to dispose of investments of which it had a duty to dispose.
“No restitution has been made for said lesses.”

The petition further alleges:

“Information concerning said trust company’s administration of said trust and the existence of the aforesaid breaches of trust and practices of said trust company is contained in the papers, documents and records of said trust company which came into the possession and control of said superintendent, when said superintendent took possession of said trust company for liquidation and have ever since been in said superintendent’s possession and control.”

Plaintiff further alleges:

“On or about May 10, 1937, plaintiff, as successor trustee, served a written demand -upon the defendants, that they render to plaintiff, as successor trustee, an accounting of the administration of said trust by said trust company, and disclose to plaintiff, as successor .trustee, the instances wherein the - aforementioned practices and breaches of trust affected said trust company’s administration 'of said trust. At the same time, plaintiff, as successor trustee, served a written demand upon said superintendent that said superintendent render to plaintiff, as successor trustee, an accounting of the custody, care and administration of said trust estate by said superintendent following the entry of said trust company into liquidation, and that he restore to plaintiff in full, all sums of money taken, subsequent to June 15, 1933, by said superintendent, from said trust assets, for compensation. Said demands were refused on or about May 13, 1937. Plaintiff has no adequate remedy at law. Plaintiff herewith offers to do equity.”

By its prayer, consisting of nearly three pages, plaintiff seeks an order requiring the superintendent of banks to give a complete and detailed accounting of all transactions of said trust company which may have any relation to said trust.

Based upon said alleged breaches of trust, plaintiff asks for its ultimate relief that the claims arising out of the breaches of trust of the Guardian Trust Company be determined and that judgment be rendered in its favor for the amount so found, and that the judgment be decreed to be a valid general claim against the assets of the Guardian Trust Company in the hands of the superintendent of banks.

Plaintiff further asks for a lien against the assets of the trust as security for the losses sustained. In brief, the ultimate relief sought by plaintiff is to impose a elann against the assets of the Guardian Trust Company.

The demurrer challenges the sufficiency of the allegations of the petition to state a cause of action against the defendant, the superintendent of banks. Two grounds ■are urged in support of the demurrer, to-wit:

1. That the filing of a claim, the making of legal proof thereof and its rejection by the superintendent of banks is a condition precedent to the jurisdiction of the Common Pleas Court.

2. That the Common Pleas Court does not have jurisdiction to compel the superintendent of banks to account for the acts of the Guardian Trust Company while it was acting as trustee.

[586]*586It is the contention of plaintiff that under the provisions of §710-95, GC, which plaintiff designates the “equitable method,” ■there is no necessity for the filing of a claim; that this section does give the court jurisdiction over the superintendent of banks, and further, that the court undei its equitable power has authority to compel the superintendent of banks to give an accounting such as is sought in the petition.

In a number of cases submitted plaintiff concedes the necessity of the filing of a claim as provided by the statute, contending that the allegations in the petition meet the statutory requirements.

AH of the various issues and claims will be determined in this memorandum.

Voluminous briefs have been filed, citing-many authorities from other jurisdictions. I1- appears to the court that answers to the questions involved may be found in the statutory law and decisions of Ohio.

Are the remedies and procedure provided by §§710-1 to 714, GC, sometimes known as the Ohio Banking Act, .exclusive?

See State ex Grisell v Marlow, 15 Oh St 114 Syl.

“A specific mode of contesting elections' in this state, having been provided by statute, according to the requirement of the constitution, that mode alone can be resorted to, in exclusion of the common law mode of inquiry by proceedings in quo warranto. The statute which gives this special remedy, and prescribes the mode of its exercise, binds the state as well as individuals.”

The court stated, at the bottom of page 134:

“And it is a settled rule that ‘where a new right, or the means of acquiring it, is conferred, and an adequate remedy for its invasion is given by the same statute, parties injured are confined to the statutory redress.’ * -* *
“The rule is equally applicable, upon principle, that where the statute which confers the means of acquiring a right prescribes an adequate special mode of determining by judicial investigation the fact ■upon which the right depends, that mode must be exclusive.”

See State ex John Gerke v The Board of Commissioners of Hamilton County, 26 Oh St 364, Syl.:

.“3.

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Related

State Ex Rel. Squire v. National City Bank
11 N.E.2d 93 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1936)
State Ex Rel. Duffy v. Common Pleas Court
13 N.E.2d 233 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1938)
State Ex Rel. Squire v. Steck
5 N.E.2d 919 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1937)
Farkas v. Fulton, Supt.
199 N.E. 850 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1936)
Slocum v. Mutual Building & Investment Co.
199 N.E. 175 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1935)
Squire v. Guardian Trust Co.
25 Ohio Law. Abs. 408 (Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, 1937)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
27 Ohio Law. Abs. 584, 13 Ohio Op. 21, 1938 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 929, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/national-city-bank-v-guardian-trust-co-ohctcomplcuyaho-1938.