New Rochelle Trust Co. v. White

28 N.E.2d 387, 283 N.Y. 223, 1940 N.Y. LEXIS 935
CourtNew York Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 28, 1940
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 28 N.E.2d 387 (New Rochelle Trust Co. v. White) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
New Rochelle Trust Co. v. White, 28 N.E.2d 387, 283 N.Y. 223, 1940 N.Y. LEXIS 935 (N.Y. 1940).

Opinion

Lehman, Ch. J.

The city of New Rochelle adopted a local law, effective, according to its terms, on January 1,1932, which amended or superseded the charter granted by the Legislature (Laws of 1910, ch. 559). The local law (No. 1) contains a provision:

§ 132. Deposits of city funds. City funds shall be deposited by the treasurer only in such banks or trust companies, one or more, as shall have been approved by the council, and the treasurer shall only deposit the city funds in such approved banks or trust companies, one or more, as shall have furnished either surety bonds or other securities (such securities, to be deposited in escrow as security for the protection of the city funds), in kind and amounts under such rules and regulations as may be adopted by the council, but such amounts for each bank or trust company shall not be less than one hundred thousand dollars.”

On February 3, 1936, the City Council adopted a resolution designating five banks and trust companies, including the plaintiff trust company, as depositories for city funds and directing the Treasurer of the city to deposit no city funds in any of the banks or trust companies until such bank or trust company shall have deposited approved bonds in the sum of not less than $150,000 as security for deposits made by the city. The plaintiff trust company has pledged such bonds as security for deposits of city funds; the city since then has had on deposit with the plaintiff varying sums of money with an average daily balance of over $300,000.

The Superintendent of Banks has advised the plaintiff *228 that the local law and the resolution adopted pursuant to its provisions do not confer upon the bank authority to pledge its assets as security for deposits of the city of New Roche.lle and that the pledge of the bonds for such purpose should be terminated. The city of New Rochelle and its officers have notified the plaintiff that it will withdraw the moneys deposited with the plaintiff and close its account if the bonds pledged as security are withdrawn. The plaintiff wishes to retain the account of the city. The city and the plaintiff trust company both contend that the local law is valid and confers upon the bank power to make the pledge. The controversy has been submitted to the Appellate Division upon an agreed statement of facts. The Appellate Division decided that the local law is valid and that the. local law and the resolution adopted in conformity therewith affords sufficient authority to the plaintiff to pledge a portion of its assets to secure the deposit of the funds of the said city with it.”

A bank has no power to pledge any of its assets as security for' deposits made with it except as such power may be conferred by statute. The Legislature has not by any statute conferred upon banks such general power. (State Bank of Commerce v. Stone, 261 N. Y. 175.) That is true even where the deposits are made by a municipal corporation. (City of Mt. Vernon v. Mt. Vernon Trust Co., 270 N. Y. 400.) In State Bank of Commerce v. Stone (supra) we pointed out that statutes enacted by the Legislature confer upon banks power to pledge in some cases their securities for deposits of public moneys. Some of the statutes purporting to confer such power are general statutes, other statutes are local and the trust company and the city contend that the local law enacted by the city of New Rochelle confers upon banks in this case the power which the Legislature by local statute decreed that banks should have in other cases.

The section of the local law of New Rochelle which, it is said, confers upon banks a power which the Legislature has withheld does not in express terms purport to confer any *229 power upon the banks or trust companies to pledge their assets as security for deposits of funds of the city of New Rochelle. In terms it is only a restriction imposed upon the treasurer of the city and relates to the government and affairs of the city in the transaction of its business. A local law which does only that is, it is clear, within the field of legislation open to cities under the provisions of former article XII of the Constitution, as amended at the general election of 1923 (popularly known as the Home Rule Amendment) and under the City Home Rule Law (Cons. Laws, ch. 76) adopted by the Legislature to carry out the mandate of the amended Constitution.

The positive restrictions upon the power of the treasurer of the city to make a deposit with a bank or trust company, unless such bank or trust company pledges its securities, confers, it is said, by necessary implication, power upon the banking institution to make the pledge. A power conferred upon a public officer to exact from a bank a pledge to secure a deposit of funds in his custody can, of' course, be exercised only if the bank has the power to give the security. Accordingly, where powers of both city officers and banks are derived from and subject to regulation by the same legislative body, it has been held that a statute conferring upon a public officer power to exact a pledge from a bank confers upon a bank by fair implication the power to make the pledge. (Texas & Pacific Ry. Co. v. Pottorff, 291 U. S. 245, 257, 258; O'Connor v. Rhodes, 79 Fed. Rep. [2d] 146.) Banks derive their powers from and are subject to regulation by the Legislature of the State and the problem in this case is whether the city of New Rochelle could by local law confer upon banks and trust companies, incorporated under the laws of the State of New York, authority, withheld by the Legislature, to make a pledge to secure deposits of moneys of the city of New Rochelle and, if the city has such power, whether the local law was intended to confer such authority upon the banks and trust companies.

*230 We assume that validity of the statute must be determined by the provisions of article IX of the Constitution of the State, as amended in 1938, rather than the provisions of the Constitution in effect when the local law was adopted; for the City Home Rule Law (as amd. L. 1939, ch. 867, § 36) so provides in express terms. That article was unquestionably intended to extend the field in which a city might legislate and to exclude the Legislature from that field. Even so, under no reasonable construction of the new article of the Constitution do we find that the field of local legislation includes laws intended to confer upon the banks of the State a power withheld from banks by the Legislature even though without such power a bank might not be able to co-operate with the city in the transaction of the business of the city in the manner which the city might deem for its best interests.

The State incorporates banks and regulates and supervises the transaction of the business of banking in the interest of all the people of the State. Banks may be incorporated only by general laws, and they derive their powers from the State alone.

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Bluebook (online)
28 N.E.2d 387, 283 N.Y. 223, 1940 N.Y. LEXIS 935, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/new-rochelle-trust-co-v-white-ny-1940.