State Bank of Fargo v. Dakota Bank & Trust Co.

305 N.W.2d 661, 1981 N.D. LEXIS 299
CourtNorth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedMay 12, 1981
DocketCiv. No. 9903
StatusPublished

This text of 305 N.W.2d 661 (State Bank of Fargo v. Dakota Bank & Trust Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering North Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State Bank of Fargo v. Dakota Bank & Trust Co., 305 N.W.2d 661, 1981 N.D. LEXIS 299 (N.D. 1981).

Opinion

ERICKSTAD, Chief Justice.

The appellant, State Bank of Fargo, appeals from a judgment entered by the District Court of Burleigh County affirming a decision of the State Banking Board of North Dakota which granted the application of Dakota Bank and Trust Company to establish a drive-in and walk-up banking facility in Fargo, N. D.

[662]*662On November 30,1979, Dakota Bank filed an application with the State Banking Board asking that it be granted authority to establish a drive-in, walk-up facility on the northside of Fargo. The Board held hearings on the application on January 22, 1980, and February 27, 1980. Representatives of the State Bank of Fargo (State Bank) and Union State Bank appeared at the hearings and protested the application. The Board granted the application on May 8,1980. State Bank then appealed the decision of the Board to the District Court of Burleigh County which affirmed the Board’s decision. State Bank raises the following issues in its appeal to this court:

(1) Whether or not the State Banking Board of North Dakota and the district court erred by permitting Dakota Bank and Trust Company a second separate facility within Fargo, North Dakota.
(2) Whether or not the finding made by State Banking Board and affirmed by the district court that the needs and welfare of the residents of Fargo’s northside would be served by the proposed facility is supported by the preponderance of the evidence.

I. Standard of Review

Our standard of review was set out in American State Bank, etc. v. State Banking, 289 N.W.2d 222 (N.D.1980), as follows:

“This court has said on numerous occasions that the State Banking Board is an administrative agency. Upon review, findings made by the Board are entitled to great weight. We exercise a three-part review of the factual basis of administrative orders: (1) are the findings of fact supported by a preponderance of the evidence; (2) are the conclusions of law sustained by the findings of fact; and (3) is the agency decision supported by the conclusions of law? Prior to July 1,1977, we used the ‘substantial evidence’ standard in review of administrative agency decisions, but in 1977 the Legislature substituted the ‘preponderance of the evidence’ standard for the ‘substantial evidence’ standard.

“In Power Fuels, supra, 283 N.W.2d 214, at 220, we stated:

‘In construing the “preponderance of the evidence” standard to permit us to apply the weight-of-the-evidence test to the factual findings of an administrative agency, we do not make independent findings of fact or substitute our judgment for that of the agency. We determine only whether a reasoning mind reasonably could have determined that the factual conclusions reached were proved by the weight of the evidence from the entire record.’ ” 289 N.W.2d at 225-26. (Citations omitted.)

II. Approval of Conversion Facility

State Bank argues that the Board erred when it approved a second separate facility for Dakota as Dakota already had a separate facility on the southside which, it asserts, was improperly approved as a paying and receiving station (P&R) when Dakota converted from a national bank to a state bank. State Bank contends that, because the southside facility was improperly approved as a P&R and is in reality a separate drive-in facility, it was error for the Board to approve the second drive-in facility as state law prohibits any bank from maintaining more than one drive-in facility. § 6-03-13.2, N.D.C.C. State Bank asserts that pursuant to Minnkota Power Coop. v. Lake Shure Prop., 289 N.W.2d 230 (N.D.1980), it should be allowed to collaterally attack the prior approval of the southside P&R as the Board did not follow the statutory procedure for approving the establishment of P&R stations.

In Minnkota Power, the power company sought an injunction to enjoin landowners from interfering with the upgrading of an existing power line. We reversed as the Public Service Commission did not give the notice of a hearing as required by statute and thus failed to comply with the statutory requirements in the prior waiver hearing. The case was remanded with instructions permitting the power company to [663]*663make application for a new hearing. 289 N.W.2d at 234. In this case, however, there were not any statutory defects in the procedure the Board employed when it approved the conversion of Dakota from a national to a state bank.

Dakota, when it was a national bank, received approval for a P&R station in 1962 from the Comptroller of Currency. The federal law provided that a P&R could be established as allowed by state law. 12 U.S.C., § 36(c). State law at that time allowed a P&R in any “community” not having any other banking facilities. See, former § 6-03-14, N.D.C.C. The Comptroller considered the southside of Fargo as a separate community and authorized Dakota’s P&R in that location.

In 1963, Section 6-03-14 was amended to read city, town, or village instead of community. The statute provides, however, that the “limitation shall not apply to any banking institution which has already received a permit for the construction of such a receiving and paying station.” § 6-03-14, N.D.C.C.1 (Section 6-03-14 was also amended by the 1979 legislature but the applicable language was not affected.) Dakota legally operated the southside facility as a P&R from the period of its inception until 1979.

On July 1,1979, Dakota converted from a national bank to a state bank pursuant to Section 6-03-13.5, N.D.C.C. This section provides:

“6-03-13.5. National bank conversion to state bank. — A national bank located in this state which follows the procedure prescribed by federal law to convert into a state bank, shall be granted a state charter if it meets' the provisions of the North Dakota Century Code for the incorporation and chartering of a new state bank. Any requirement that shares must be paid in cash may be satisfied by the exchange of shares of the converted state bank for those of the converting national bank, which may be valued at no more than their fair cash market value. The procedure for incorporation of a state bank may be modified to the extent made necessary by the difference between an ordinary incorporation and a conversion." (Emphasis added.) § 6-03-13.5, N.D.C.C.

State Bank asserts that this requires Dakota to be treated as a “new” bank subject to the laws in existence in 1979 and hence the “grandfather clause” of Section 6-03-14 would not be applicable if the P&R were to be approved as a “new” P&R and, as there are other banking institutions within the city of Fargo, Dakota could not be granted authority to “establish” a new P&R station. We do not agree.

Section 6-03-13.5 does not require the converting bank to be treated as a new bank.

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Related

Minnkota Power Cooperative, Inc. v. Lake Shure Properties
289 N.W.2d 230 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 1980)
American State Bank of Williston v. State Banking Board
289 N.W.2d 222 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 1980)
Power Fuels, Inc. v. Elkin
283 N.W.2d 214 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 1979)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
305 N.W.2d 661, 1981 N.D. LEXIS 299, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-bank-of-fargo-v-dakota-bank-trust-co-nd-1981.