State ex rel. Allen v. Title Guaranty & Surety Co.

152 P. 189, 27 Idaho 752, 1915 Ida. LEXIS 96
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 2, 1915
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 152 P. 189 (State ex rel. Allen v. Title Guaranty & Surety Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. Allen v. Title Guaranty & Surety Co., 152 P. 189, 27 Idaho 752, 1915 Ida. LEXIS 96 (Idaho 1915).

Opinion

MORGAN, J.

— This action was commenced by the state of Idaho to recover on the official bond of Vernon W. Platt, former bank commissioner of Idaho, and the Title Guaranty and Surety Company of Scranton, Pennsylvania, his surety, for the use and benefit of O. W. Allen and 218 other depositors in the Boise State Bank, Limited, a separate cause of action being stated in the complaint on behalf of each of - said depositors. The amount in dispute in each cause of action is separate and distinct from every other cause of action and none of the parties claimed any interest whatever in the demand of any other depositor. In none of the causes of action does the state, as a trustee of an express trust, under the statute, ask for any individual depositor for as much as $3,000, exclusive of interest and costs, the sum asked for each depositor being the amount of the balance due on his deposits between October 27, 1911, when it is alleged said bank commissioner, Platt, concluded an examination of the bank, and December 19, 1911, when he closed it.

It is alleged in the complaint that upon making his examination of the bank on the 25th, 26th and 27th of October, 1911, Platt became satisfied and knew its capital was impaired [758]*758and reduced below the amount required by law and below the amount certified to the commissioner as paid in, and that he failed, neglected and omitted to require its officers to make good such impairment or deficiency; that he became satisfied and knew it had unlawfully refused to pay one of its depositors in accordance with the terms on which the deposit was received; that he became satisfied and knew the bank was insolvent and that he failed, neglected and omitted to take charge of it and wind up its affairs as by law provided until the 19th of December, 1911. That by reason of his failure to perform his official duty in this behalf the persons for whose benefit this action was brought, believing the bank to be solvent, deposited therein various sums of money in amounts set out in the complaint.

The trial resulted in a verdict and judgment against the appellants, which judgment was rendered in favor of each of the beneficiaries named, for the several amounts found to be due them, the aggregate amount of which was $30,240.98. From said judgment and an order denying a new trial this appeal is taken.

The appellants, in the preparation of their brief, have failed to conform to rule 45 of the rules of practice, in that it does not contain a distinct enumeration of the several errors relied on. However, we will undertake to dispose of the points presented for our consideration.

The appellants filed a petition for removal of the cause from the state court to* the district court of the United States and alleged therein, among other matters, that the amount in dispute exceeded the sum or value of $3,.000, exclusive of interest and costs; that the controversy was between citizens of different states; that the state of Idaho was but a formal or nominal plaintiff, and that the parties for whose use and benefit the suit was brought were citizens of Idaho; that the defendant, Title Guaranty and Surety Company of Scranton, Pennsylvania, was a citizen of Pennsylvania and that the defendant Platt was a citizen of Oregon. The petition for removal was denied and appellants contend that error was thereby committed.

[759]*759■It is true the amounts in the. aggregate of the several separate causes of action, exclusive of interest and costs, are in excess of $3,000, and it is also true, and it appears from the complaint, that the money claimed to be due to no individual depositor amounted to that sum.

A number of authorities are cited by appellants in support of their contention that the cause should have been removed to the federal court, but it is believed they are all readily distinguishable from cases of this kind. "What appears to be the correct rule is stated in case of Troy Bank v. G. A. Whitehead & Co., 222 U. S. 39, 32 Sup. Ct. 9, 56 L. ed. 81, as follows:

“When two or more plaintiffs, having separate and distinct demands, unite for convenience and economy in a single suit, it is essential that the demand of each be of the requisite jurisdictional amount; but when several plaintiffs unite to enforce a single title or right, in Avhich they have a common and undivided interest, it is enough if their interests collectively equal the jurisdictional amount.” (See, also, Putney v. Whitmire, 66 Fed. 385; Gibson v. Shufeldt, 122 U. S. 27, 7 Sup. Ct. 1066, 30 L. ed. 1083; Woodside v. Beckham, 216 U. S. 117, 30 Sup. Ct. 367, 54 L. ed. 408; Farmers’ Loan & Trust Co. v. Waterman, 106 U. S. 265, 1 Sup. Ct. 131, 27 L. ed. 115.)

There is in this action, in one sense, a unity of interest, which lies in the fact that all of the causes of action are upon the same bond and for the same breach thereof and on the same default or neglect of duty on the part of the bank commissioner, and the bond runs to the state of Idaho to and for the use and benefit of all parties who are aggrieved by the breach thereof, but the depositors in the bank had separate and distinct demands against appellants, none of which amounted to enough to confer jurisdiction upon the federal court. Each of them might have brought a separate action, but it was not necessary for them to do so. The bond was given to and was made payable to the state of Idaho, the claims were united for convenience and economy, and suit was brought in the name of the state as trustee of an express trust. [760]*760Therefore we conclude that the claims cannot be aggregated to make the requisite amount for federal jurisdiction.

Secs. 295 and 296, Rev. Codes, provide:

“See. 295: Every official bond executed by any officer pursuant to law is in force and obligatory upon the principal and sureties therein to and for the state of Idaho, and to and for the use and benefit of all persons who may be injured or aggrieved by the wrongful act or default of such officer in his official capacity, and any person so injured or aggrieved may bring suit on such bond, in his own n-arne, without an assignment thereof. ’ ’
“Sec. 296: No such bond is void on the first recovery of a judgment thereon; but suit may be afterward brought, from time to time, and judgment recovered thereon by the state of Idaho, or by any person to whom a right of action has accrued, against such officer and his sureties, until the whole penalty of the bond is exhausted.”

Sec. 4092, Rev. Codes, provides:

“An executor, or administrator, or trustee of an express trust, or a person expressly authorized by statute, may sue without joining with him the persons for whose benefit the action is prosecuted. A person with whom or in whose name a contract is made for the benefit of another, is a trustee of an express trust, within the meaning of this section. ’ ’

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Bluebook (online)
152 P. 189, 27 Idaho 752, 1915 Ida. LEXIS 96, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-allen-v-title-guaranty-surety-co-idaho-1915.