Stallo v. Wagner

220 F. 360, 1914 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1330
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedNovember 17, 1914
DocketNo. 11-138
StatusPublished

This text of 220 F. 360 (Stallo v. Wagner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stallo v. Wagner, 220 F. 360, 1914 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1330 (S.D.N.Y. 1914).

Opinion

ROSE, District Judge.

On March 11, 1911, the Mt. Vernon National Bank was closed by order of the Comptroller of Currency. He [362]*362subsequently put it in the hands of a receiver. It is insolvent. The complainant was a depositor in the bank, and at times a borrower from it. He made his first deposit on the 2d of October, 1909, and his last on the 7th of January, 1911, at which latter date his balance, according to the books of' the bank and his passbook had been reduced to $36.69. There were no further transactions between them. Between October 2, 1909, and January 18, 1911, his passbook was balanced eight times. On at least six of these occasions he (or his authorized agent for the purpose) signed and returned to the bank one of its regular blanks acknowledging the delivery to him of a specified number of vouchers and his passbook, showing a named balance. Each of these receipts also stated:

“Unless notified to the contrary within ten days, balance as shown will be considered correct, and the vouchers genuine.”

On November 3, 1910, a full statement of his transactions with the bank after the last of the receipts and down to the 1st of that month was at the request of his agent furnished him. In his complaint in this case, he says that in arriving at- the balance appearing upon the bank’s books and his passbook, he was charged with sums that were not proper debits against him, and that the bank failed to credit him with moneys deposited by him with it, and if the account were properly stated between them the bank would owe him $74,-.'788.11 more. He brings this proceeding to establish his right to such •additional amount. With a like object, he instituted a suit against the receiver in the Supreme Court of the State of New York. That case was removed to this court. Judge Mayer held that by the passbook and the receipts signed by him an account had been stated between him and the bank. He did not, on the ground of fraud and mistake, seek to surcharge and falsify such account. The case was therefore dismissed, without prejudice, however, to the complainant’s right to bring a new suit, in which such charges of fraud and mistake should be distinctly made. The present proceeding followed.

The complainant knew little of the bank, and probably cared less. It does not appear that he was ever in it in the course of his life. He saw it only once, and that from the outside. He remembers that on one occasion on a Sunday he made a social visit to Mt. Vernon; otherwise,, he does not recall ever having been in the place before or since. Before the failure of the bank he never sent any of his ém-ployés there. He made his deposits, sometimes by mailing them to the bank, and sometimes by handing them in New York to its president or cashier. When he became a depositor in the bank, one Jennings was its president. He now naturally enough seeks to persuade himself that the bank is responsible to him for what Jennings did to his hurt. He must have been in this frame of mind when he testified that he did not know Jennings until he became a depositor in the bank, thereby suggesting that the acquaintance between them was the result, and not the cause, of his relations to the bank. Beyond all question the reverse was the case. No other reason than his friendship with Jennings has been suggested to explain why he should have become a customer in a bank with which he had otherwise no con[363]*363nections, and which was located in a place which neither himself nor his employés could conveniently visit.

It appears that his account with the bank was opened out of the proceeds of a note discounted by the bank on October 2, 1909, for one Mayhen for $3,000, three-fourths of which was put to Mayhen’s credit, and one-fourth of which was put to the credit of Stallo. Stallo had two days before, on September 30th, in anticipation of this discount and deposit, drawn a check for $750 to the order of Mayhen, which was paid by the bank. Just why the transaction should have taken this peculiar and complicated turn does not appear. But it is certain that Stallo must have consulted Jennings about it before it was put through. Moreover, the evidence leaves no doubt that Stallo had previously to that time become interested in some of the large ventures .in which, as will be afterwards shown, he and Jennings were both concerned, and into which he says Jennings induced him to go. It is rather significant of the untrustworthiness of his memory that he should have made the statement he did with reference to the date of his acquaintance with Jennings, and also that he should absolutely have forgotten, as he testified he has, all of the circumstances connected with this first deposit and this first of his checks upon the bank, unusual, peculiar, and apparently unnecessary as they appear to have been.

At and before the time he became a depositor in the bank, Jennings and he were warm friends, and they remained so at least until the latter part of 1910. They were intimate business associates in a number of matters of quite considerable pecuniary importance. Jennings, for legitimate and it may be for illegitimate purposes as well, wished him to be a depositor in the bank. Stallo was at about that time a considerable borrower, and he was therefore quite willing to open an account at a bank, which, however inconveniently located in relation to his residence and place of business, had a president whom he had reason to believe would look favorably upon such loans as he might solicit.

Jennings held more than one-third of the stock of the bank. He had for practical purposes absolute control of it. Much of the stock not standing in his own name belonged to persons who had confidence in him, or who sustained such relations to him that they were ready to do with reference to the bank whatever he wished done. The cashier appears to have been under his domination. He was a lawyer, and a man of strong and masterful will. In his financial schemes he was bold and venturesome. He became interested in various projects which demanded for their successful conduct resources much larger than he could legitimately command. He had the opportunity to use the bank’s money. The temptation to ward off the failure of his enterprises by using the bank’s funds proved too strong for him. When the crash came, as under such circumstances it usually does come, his dishonesty became manifest.

Stallo is also a member of the bar. How great his financial resources were does not appear. They were at all events in his judgment sufficient to justify him in participating on a considerable scale with Jennings in some of the latter’s largest ventures. His fa[364]*364ther-in-law, who died in the spring of 1910, was a wealthy man, and Stallo seems to have held during the latter months of his life.a rather broad power of attorney from him, and after his death administered upon his estate. This father-in-law (one McDonald by name), through Stallo, also became interested in some of Jenning’s schemes. Stallo was not systematic nor businesslike. He was prone to act in informal, if not in absolutely irregular, ways. He had become so involved in some of his ventures that at times it was not easy for him to come by ready money. No one who listened to the two men testify and familiarized himself with the general story of their relations to each other, to the bank, and to the schemes in which they were jointly interested, will be surprised to find that the accounts between them as individuals and with the bank are hopelessly entangled.

The transactions of which Stallo in this suit complains vary in their details.

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Related

Morgan v. United States Mortgage & Trust Co.
101 N.E. 871 (New York Court of Appeals, 1913)
Hilliard v. Lyons
180 F. 685 (Third Circuit, 1910)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
220 F. 360, 1914 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1330, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stallo-v-wagner-nysd-1914.