People ex rel. Nelson v. Citizens Trust & Savings Bank

275 Ill. App. 514, 1934 Ill. App. LEXIS 428
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJune 15, 1934
DocketGen. No. 37,077
StatusPublished

This text of 275 Ill. App. 514 (People ex rel. Nelson v. Citizens Trust & Savings Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People ex rel. Nelson v. Citizens Trust & Savings Bank, 275 Ill. App. 514, 1934 Ill. App. LEXIS 428 (Ill. Ct. App. 1934).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Gridley

delivered the opinion of the court.

On August 4, 1930, the Citizens Trust and Savings Bank, an Illinois banking corporation doing business in Chicago and hereinafter referred to as the bank, was closed by the auditor of public accounts of Illinois and thereafter Erwin J. Zuehls became its receiver. On April 8, 1932, Cora Drepiere, claiming that she was entitled to a certain trust fund of $5,000, as a preferred claim on the bank’s assets, filed in the present cause an intervening petition, to which on May 16, 1932, the receiver filed an amended answer. Upon a reference to a master, and after some testimony had been taken before him, Mrs. Drepiere, by leave of court on December 14, 1932, filed an amended petition in which she prayed that the court enter an order “directing the receiver specifically to execute and perform the aforesaid trusts and undertakings of the defendant bank, or, in the alternative, if he is unable so to perform, that the receiver be ordered to return to petitioner said sum of $5,000, and to receive from petitioner the aforesaid Justine Apartment bonds (which bonds petitioner now tenders to the receiver); that it be decreed that the fund of $5,000 was held by defendant bank in trust for petitioner’s use on certain trusts and confidences; that her claim is preferential; and that she may have such other and further relief,” etc. Subsequently the court ordered that the receiver’s amended answer to her original petition stand as the answer to her amended petition. On the hearing before the master petitioner testified in her own behalf, as did three other witnesses for her. Several witnesses called by the receiver also gave testimony and certain writings (including certain of the bank’s records) were introduced. The master’s report was filed on May 9,1933. After reviewing the pleadings and the evidence, and making certain findings, he recommended that the court enter a decree in substantial accord with the prayer of petitioner’s amended petition, and thereafter the objections of the receiver to the report were overruled and ordered to stand as exceptions before the court. On July 13, 1933, the court entered a decree in which, after approving and confirming the master’s report and making numerous findings, it was adjudged that said fund of $5,000 is held in trust by the receiver, for the use and benefit of petitioner; that the receiver pay to her said sum “upon the surrender of the ‘Justine Apartment’ bonds, aggregating the face value of $5,000”; and that said sum “be paid to petitioner, in the due course of administration, as a preferred claim.” By the present appeal the receiver seeks to reverse the decree.

Among the findings in the decree are the following in substance:

That for several years prior to September, 1928, petitioner had purchased from the bank numerous “individual mortgages,” among which was a certain mortgage known as the “Young mortgage,” which was called for payment, and on which there was paid to the bank the sum of $10,000, for the use of petitioner, who was the legal owner and holder of the mortgage; that out of said fund of $10,000, petitioner purchased and received from the bank another mortgage, called the “Johnston mortgage,” amounting to $5,000; that on September 18, 1928, the bank had in its possession for petitioner’s use the remainder of said fund of $10,000, to wit, the sum of $5,000; that on said date the bank delivered to petitioner certain “Justine Apartment” bonds, aggregating at their face value $5,000, “with'the express provision and understanding that it, the Bank, would procure with said sum of $5,000 an individual first mortgage of like amount for petitioner, within a reasonable time, and deliver the same to her in lieu of said ‘Justine Apartment’ bonds”; that petitioner “exercised only such acts of ownership over the ‘Justine Apartment’ bonds as were necessary to protect and preserve her rights, and such acts did not in any way prejudice the rights of the bank thereto, nor affect the terms of the aforesaid agreement between petitioner and the bank”; that on August 4, 1930, the bank was closed by order of the auditor of public accounts of Illinois, and the Chicago Trust Company was appointed its receiver; that thereafter Erwin J. Zuehls was appointed as its successor receiver; that petitioner made repeated demands on the bank and its receiver and successor receiver “to deliver to her an individual mortgage in the sum of $5,000, in lieu of said ‘Justine Apartment’ bonds, or to pay to her said amount in cash”; that petitioner has at all times been ready and able to return to the bank, or to either of its said receivers, said Justine bonds, but that each and all of them refused her demands; that the sum of $5,000 “constituted a fund which became impressed with a trust as of September 18,1928, for the use of petitioner, and continued to be a trust fund until the bank delivered to her an individual mortgage”; and that the bank, having failed and refused to perform said agreement, continued to hold said fund of $5,000 in trust for petitioner’s benefit, for the purposes aforesaid.

After reviewing the evidence, including the testimony of petitioner (which was corroborated in some particulars by that of her witness, Carlos A. Life, who in September, 1928, was the manager of one of the departments of the bank and who, as admitted during the hearing, had authority to make such contract with petitioner as the court found was made), we are of the opinion that the court’s above findings of fact (as distinguished from conclusions) are sustained by the evidence, but that neither the court’s conclusions nor the decree in question is warranted by the evidence.

Counsel for petitioner contends that said verbal contract or arrangement of September 18, 1928, between petitioner and the bank was such as “to charge the bank as a trustee for said fund of $5,000, which it held for a particular purpose for petitioner’s use.” And in support of his contention he places much reliance upon the decision and holdings in the case of People ex rel. Nelson v. Bates, 351 Ill. 439, and authorities therein cited.

In that case it appears that on February 6, 1930, the Schuyler State Bank was closed by the auditor of public accounts and a receiver appointed; that Mrs. Bates filed a petition in the receivership proceedings praying for a preference over general creditors as to her claim of $4,725 against the bank; that after a hearing the circuit court entered a decree allowing the preference; that on appeal the Appellate Court for the Third District reversed the decree and remanded the cause with directions to enter a decree finding that Mrs. Bates was a general creditor of the bank and that her claim should pro rate with the claims of other general creditors; and that on certiorari our Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the Appellate Court and affirmed the decree of the circuit court in part and remanded the cause with directions. The facts of the case, as disclosed by the Supreme Court’s opinion, are substantially as follows: For many years Mrs. Bates had transacted her banking business at the Schuyler ■ Bank, and she had purchased a certain note and mortgage from the bank. About April 3, 1929, the amount of the note was collected by the bank, and upon her being notified of the fact she went to the bank and had a talk with its president, Schuyler, about the disposition of the proceeds, but no money then was given to her or credit placed to her account.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

People Ex Rel. Nelson v. Bates
184 N.E. 597 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1933)
Woodhouse v. Crandall
58 L.R.A. 385 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1902)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
275 Ill. App. 514, 1934 Ill. App. LEXIS 428, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-ex-rel-nelson-v-citizens-trust-savings-bank-illappct-1934.