Reeves v. State Bank

8 Ohio St. (N.S.) 465
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 15, 1858
StatusPublished

This text of 8 Ohio St. (N.S.) 465 (Reeves v. State Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Reeves v. State Bank, 8 Ohio St. (N.S.) 465 (Ohio 1858).

Opinions

Brinkerhoff, J.

It is conceded on all hands, that under the provisions of the act of February 24,1845, “ to incorporate the State Bank of Ohio, and other banking companies,” on the commission of an act of insolvency by the Commercial Bank of Toledo, the State Bank of Ohio, the defendant in this case, became, by operation of law, the assignee of the Commercial Bank, and, as regards every thing in contest here, substituted to its rights.

The plaintiffs seek, in this action, by a recovery against the State Bank, to obtain a preference over general cred[469]*469itors of the Commercial Bank. On the other hand, if they fail in this, and are held to be, in fact and in law, but general creditors of the Commercial Bank, they will, under the provisions of the act referred to, be postponed until the claims of certain other classes of creditors are first satisfied.

It seems to us that the plaintiffs in this case have lost none of their rights from the fact — supposing it to be so —that their money has been paid over by the American Exchange Bank to the defendant. If it was the plaintiffs’ money in the hands of the former when paid over to the latter, the fact of that payment does not make it otherwise. Nor does the question whether or not the defendant, at the time it received the money from the American Exchange Bank, had notice of the plaintiffs’ rights, have, as we conceive, any bearing upon the rights of the parties before us. The defendant, when it received the money, did not stand in the situation of a purchaser, or other party capable of acquiring new rights distinct from those of the party from which it received the money. And standing in the relation of an assignee in law simply, whatever rights the plaintiffs had against the American Exchange Bank, they still have against the defendant; and the question of notice has nothing to do with the case. If the plaintiffs, immediately before the money was received by the defendant, could have sustained an action like this against the American Exchange Bank, then they are entitled to their present action, and if not, not.

Our inquiries may be somewhat simplified, therefore, and the case relieved from complication, by supposing the American Exchange Bank to be the defendant here, and the action to have been brought immediately before the payment made by it to the defendant.

In the case supposed, then, would the plaintiffs be entitled to recover against the American Exchange Bank ?

In the prosecution of this inquiry, the leading question is, whose agent was the American Exchange Bank ? Was [470]*470it the agent of the plaintiffs, or of the Commercial Bank of Toledo alone?

"We are not aware that this question has ever been decided by the court of last resort in this state, and the cases in other states are not uniform. A leading case on the point is Allen v. Merchants’ Bank of New York, 15 Wend. 482. That was an action by the owner of a bill of exchange to recover its amount as damages from the Merchants’ Bank of New York, with which he had deposited it for collection, on account of the negligence of a bank in Philadelphia, where the bill was payable, and to which it had been transmitted by the defendant, in failing to take the requisite measures to charge the drawer and indorsers. It was held by the supreme court of New York, that the Philadelphia bank was the agent of the owner of the bill, and not of the Merchants’ Bank of New York; and that when the latter received the bill for collection, in the absence of any special agreement, no other agreement was implied than that it shoidd be forwarded with due diligence to some competent agent, to do what should be necessary in the premises.” The judgment of the supreme court in this case, on appeal, was reversed by the court of errors, which held that the secondary agent was, in the case stated, and in the absence of a special agreement or controlling usage, the agent of the primary agent, and not of the owner of the bill; and that “ a bank receiving for collection a bill drawn here, upon a person residing in another state, is liable for any neglect of duty occurring in its collection, whether arising from the default of its officers here, its correspondents abroad, or of agents employed by such correspondents.” 22 Wend. 215. After-wards, in The Bank of Orleans v. Smith, 8 Hill 560, the supreme court virtually adhered to its former decision, notwithstanding the reversal of its former judgment by the court of errors. In the subsequent case, however, of Montgomery County Bank v. Albany City Bank, 3 Seld. 459, the court of appeals held, that “ where a country bank sends [471]*471to its corresponding bank at Albany for collection, an indorsed bill of exchange payable in New York, and the latter bank indorses and transmits it to its own corresponding bank in New York for the purpose, the Albany bank alone is answerable for any negligence in presenting the bill by which the indorser fails to be charged;” the court of last resort thus again overruling the doctrine attempted to be maintained by the supreme court. And the case in 3 Seld. was followed and approved by the court of appeals, in Commercial Bank of Pennsylvania v. Union Bank of New York, 1 Kern. 203, in which, “ where the Bank of Wilmington was the owner of a bill of exchange, payable at sight at Troy, and indorsed and transmitted it to the plaintiff under an arrangement by which the latter collected and retained the proceeds of paper thus remitted to it, and with the same redeemed the circulating notes of, and paid drafts drawn by, the bank of Wilmington; and the plaintiff indorsed and transmitted the bill to the defendant, its correspondent in New York, for collection, and the same was by the latter sent to the Troy City Bank for the same purpose;” it was held, “ that the plaintiff could recover of the defendant the amount of the bill if collected by the Troy City Bank, or if the same was lost by the omission of the latter to charge the drawer and indorsers.” And this seems now to be the settled doctrine of the courts of New York. The same doctrine is asserted by Story, J., in Taber v. Perrot, 2 Gall. 565. While the controversy was still pending in the courts of New York, and before the reversal of the judgment of the supreme court by the court of errors, the doctrine of the former court was followed by the courts of Connecticut and Massachusetts, in East Haddam Bank v. Scovil, 12 Conn. 303, and Fabens v. Mercantile Bank, 23 Pick. 330.

Erom the first we have felt the question to be one of much difficulty, and we have given it an unusual share of attention. In the midst of the conflict of authorities, we have been rather bewildered than aided by the adjudica[472]*472tions in other states, except so far as the discussions resulting from the conflict tend to throw light upon the principles involved in it.

I do not know that the arguments upon the question, pro and con, can he more fairly presented than in the language of Chancellor Walworth and of Senator Verplanck, in the court of errors, in Allen v. The Merchants’ Bank.

The Chancellor says:

“It is a general rule-of law, that hanks and other corporations, as well as individuals, are liable for the acts or omissions of their general officers and servants, in relation to any business entrusted to the corporation or individual to be transacted.

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Related

Thomas Wilson & Co. v. Smith
44 U.S. 763 (Supreme Court, 1845)
Mowatt v. McLelan
1 Wend. 173 (New York Supreme Court, 1828)
McKinster v. Bank of Utica
9 Wend. 46 (New York Supreme Court, 1832)
S. & M. Allen v. Merchants Bank
15 Wend. 482 (New York Supreme Court, 1836)
Allen v. Merchant's Bank
22 Wend. 215 (Court for the Trial of Impeachments and Correction of Errors, 1839)
Barker v. Prentiss
6 Mass. 430 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1810)
Lawrence v. Stonington Bank
6 Conn. 521 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1827)
East-Haddam Bank v. Scovil
12 Conn. 303 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1837)
Taber v. Perrot
23 F. Cas. 609 (U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Rhode Island, 1815)

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Bluebook (online)
8 Ohio St. (N.S.) 465, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reeves-v-state-bank-ohio-1858.