State ex rel. Davis v. Home State Bank

201 N.W. 971, 113 Neb. 93, 1925 Neb. LEXIS 58
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 22, 1925
DocketNo. 23230
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 201 N.W. 971 (State ex rel. Davis v. Home State Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska 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. Davis v. Home State Bank, 201 N.W. 971, 113 Neb. 93, 1925 Neb. LEXIS 58 (Neb. 1925).

Opinion

Redick, District Judge.

Applications of various persons holders of certificates of deposit issued by the Home State Bank of Dunning for allowance of the same against the state guaranty fund.

Applicants show that they became the owners of the certificates in good faith and for value before due, and claim that they are entitled to the protection of the law as applied to good faith purchasers of negotiable instruments, and a good proportion of their brief is devoted to-a discussion of that question. But, while there is no doubt that certificates of deposit are negotiable instruments entitled to the protection of the law governing the same as between private parties dealing therewith, since the filing of the briefs in this case we have decided in State v. Farmers State Bank, 111 Neb. 117, that, where the question is of the allowance of such claim against the guaranty fund, the law of merchants or the negotiable instruments law have no application. As was said in that case by Day, J.: “The circumstances under which the guaranty fund may be liable are entirely apart from the law pertaining to negotiable paper. A holder of a certificate of deposit in a bank who seeks to hold the guaranty fund liable for its payment must suow that the transaction leading up to the issuance of the certificate was such that the law holds the guaranty fund liable for its payment.” See, also, Fourth Nat. Bank [95]*95v. Wilson, 110 Kan. 380. The final and decisive question presented for our decision, then, is whether or not the certificates of deposit in question were lawfully issued against deposits in the Dunning bank, which must be determined by a consideration and analysis of the facts and circumstances surrounding their issuance, about which there is little dispute, and which may be summarized as follows:

From the date of its organization up until about April 24, 1920, C. C. Cooper was president of the Dunning bank, and about said date sold all of his stock to six other stockholders of the bank, to wit, Wilson, McGinn, Wegner, Rankin, Hankins, and Ocher, who, in payment for said stock, gave their joint note to Cooper for $20,000 due October 1, 1920. On that date Cooper demanded payment, but the makers were unable to make it. Cooper refused to renew the note, but suggested that if the makers could procure certificates of deposit of the Dunning bank for the amount, ■due in 12 months, he could handle such certificates in California, where he was then living, but could not handle individual notes. As the makers were not permitted by law to borrow the money from the Dunning bank, being stockholders therein, upon the suggestion of Cooper that they procure the money on their notes from some other bank, one C. E. Wilson, cashier of the Dunning bank, caused to be prepared and signed by the six purchasers, above named, a note for $20,000 payable to the Citizens State BanK of University Place, Nebraska, and on or about October 7, 1920, took the same to the Citizens State Bank, and explained the situation to its president, Mr. Bair, and requested a loan of $20,000 upon the note as security. Being informed by Bair that the bank did not have that much money to loan, Wilson suggested that the money need not leave the ba^k, but should remain there to the credit of the Dunning bank. Bair replied that that put a different aspect upon the matter, and it was finally arranged that credit should be given upon the books of the Citizens bank, which was accomplished in the following manner:- Bair [96]*96made out a deposit slip in favor of the Home State Bank of Dunning for $20,000, marking same “Not subject to check,” and credited the same to the Dunning bank. Wilson says this deposit slip was made out upon his first visit to the bank, October 7 or 8, but the only deposit slip in evidence is dated the 16th of October, and the credit was entered on the bank books October 16, and not before. As a part of the transaction, however, it was further agreed that Wilson should procure separate notes for $3,333.33 each, signed by one maker and indorsed by the five others, which was later carried out on October 27, 1920, under the same understanding that the fund was not to be drawn out of the bank. Bair required that these notes be indorsed by the Dunning bank with' recourse, which was done, the intention of Bair being to charge out the notes against che credit if they were not paid. On the afternoon of the same day, October 7 or 8, 1920, C. E. Wilson met Cooper at the First National Bank in Lincoln and, having brought the blank certificates of deposit with him, issued to C. C. Cooper three certificates of deposit dated October 7, two for $5,000 each,.and one for $10,000, due in 12 months, with interest at 5 per cent, per annum, in consideration of which Cooper delivered to Wilson his $20,000 note and the shares of stock of the Dunning bank which he had sold and held as collateral to the note. The two $5,000 certificates were assigned to the First National Bank of Glendale, California, and represent their claim herein. May 2, 1921, the $10,000 certificate of deposit was exchanged for ten certificates of deposit of $1,000 each, due six months after date, which were assigned by Cooper to one E. U. Emery, who filed claim herein, but whose interest has been transfered to C. C. Cooper, intervener. Another certificate of deposit upon which claim is made is dated May 2, 1921, for $282, and represents the interest due upon the $10,000 certificate of deposit at the time of the exchange above related, and assigned by Cooper to claimant A. A. Rezac for attorney’s fees.

[97]*97Notwithstanding the agreement between Wilson and Bair that the funds should not be withdrawn from the Citizens bank the Dunning bank drew drafts against the credit, which were refused payment, and the Citizens bank thereupon, on December 10, 1920, charged the Dunning bank with $15,000, and later, January 11, 1921, with $1,666.66, thus canceling the credit to that extent by charging the. notes against it, and returned the notes to the Dunning bank. They also charged the Dunning bank with $150 and $41.80 interest. The McGinn note was not charged off, but no drafts upon this credit were permitted; and later this note was renewed and is now held by the Citizens bank. This condition of the account was maintained until May 20, 1921.

On May 20, 1921, new notes were executed by Rankin and Hankins, and July 8, 1921, by Ocher, Wilson, and Wegner, each for $3,333.33, and indorsed, respectively, by. the other five stockholders and deposited with the Citizens bank, and thereupon the credit of the Dunning bank was reinstated in the sum of $16,666.66, and was later drawn out upon drafts of the Dunning bank upon the advice of. the state bank examiner. These notes were not indorsed by the Dunning bank, but were secured by second mortgages on real estate of the signers. The Citizens State. Bank continues to hold the five notes and that of McGinn, or renewals thereof, aggregating $20,000.

The question then recurs whether upon the above facts the claimants have shown such a deposit in- the Dunning: State Bank as is entitled to the protection of the state guaranty fund. A number of facts have been referred to occuring after the issuance of the certificates in question, but the legal status of the certificates of deposit, must be determined as of their date, the subsequent occurences being of material consideration only as they may tend to characterize the original transaction. The subsequent deposit of notes secured by real estate mortgages: and withdrawal of the funds thereby secured, while it might [98]

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Bluebook (online)
201 N.W. 971, 113 Neb. 93, 1925 Neb. LEXIS 58, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-davis-v-home-state-bank-neb-1925.