State ex rel. Eure v. Lawrence

378 S.E.2d 207, 93 N.C. App. 446, 1989 N.C. App. LEXIS 214
CourtCourt of Appeals of North Carolina
DecidedApril 18, 1989
DocketNo. 8820SC409
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 378 S.E.2d 207 (State ex rel. Eure v. Lawrence) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. Eure v. Lawrence, 378 S.E.2d 207, 93 N.C. App. 446, 1989 N.C. App. LEXIS 214 (N.C. Ct. App. 1989).

Opinion

COZORT, Judge.

The State of North Carolina filed an action against defendant Fred R. Lawrence and various corporations alleging violations of [448]*448State securities laws. A receiver was appointed to preserve and manage the assets of defendants. First Bank, not formally made a party in the State’s lawsuit, set off money in defendant Lawrence’s bank account to cover his outstanding debts to First Bank. The trial court granted the receiver’s motion to direct First Bank to release the funds set off against defendant’s loans. First Bank appeals. We reverse. The facts follow.

The action filed by the State alleged that defendant Lawrence and the various corporations had engaged in the illegal sale of securities since 1981. In response to the State’s request, a temporary restraining order (T.R.O.) was issued on 5 November 1986 enjoining the sale of securities. In the order the trial court appointed a receiver to preserve and protect the assets of the defendants.

On 7 November 1986, the receiver met with an officer of First Bank, Seven Lakes Branch, and informed the Bank that she had been appointed to manage defendants’ assets and that a T.R.O. had been entered against defendants. The receiver reached an agreement with the Bank providing that defendant Lawrence’s personal checking and savings accounts were to remain open. No checks or withdrawals were to be honored without the signatures of both defendant Lawrence and the receiver. On 25 November 1986, a preliminary injunction was granted to continue the provisions of the T.R.O.

Over the next eight months the receiver deposited $28,368.00 in defendant Lawrence’s checking account, and the Bank paid $1,857.00 in interest into the account. The Bank paid checks drawn on the account according to the agreement with the receiver. Defendant Lawrence’s checking account balance declined from $115,978.00 on 5 November 1986 to $55,555.00 on 11 August 1987. At the time of the appointment of the receiver, defendant Lawrence had several debts to First Bank. A summary of defendant Lawrence’s debts to First Bank is as follows:

1) a loan for $20,000.00, dated 2 January 1986, executed by defendant Lawrence personally; $14,191.00 was overdue and outstanding on 11 August 1987, the date of setoff;

2) a loan for $48,778.00, dated 29 May 1985, executed by defendant Lawrence and Mary Lawrence; $32,353.00 was overdue and outstanding on the setoff date;

[449]*4493) a loan for $10,000.00 made to Firetree Management Corporation on 31 January 1985 and personally guaranteed by defendant Lawrence; $1,528.00 was overdue and outstanding on the setoff date; and

4) a demand note for $85,500.00 made in June of 1986.

On 11 August 1987 First Bank set off $58,680.00 in defendant Lawrence’s checking and savings accounts against $112,572.00 outstanding and overdue on defendant Lawrence’s loans, $64,500.00 of which was overdue on the demand note. After a motion in the cause by the receiver, the trial judge ordered First Bank to pay over to the receiver the amount of setoff plus interest. First Bank appeals that order.

The issue to be decided on appeal is whether First Bank may exercise its right of setoff on defendant Lawrence’s accounts after appointment of a receiver where that receiver has used the accounts to manage defendants’ assets with the Bank’s consent. We hold that First Bank may exercise its setoff rights.

The relationship between defendant Lawrence and First Bank was one in which he was the Bank’s creditor for the amount deposited in his accounts, and the Bank was his debtor. Killette v. Raemell’s Sewing Apparel, 93 N.C. App. 162, 377 S.E. 2d 73 (1989); Lipe v. Guilford Nat. Bank, Inc., 236 N.C. 328, 330-31, 72 S.E. 2d 759, 761 (1952). Defendant Lawrence was a debtor of First Bank on various loans and guarantees. “As debtors of their general depositors banks have long had the right to setoff against the deposits any matured debts the depositors owe them. [Citation omitted.] Nothing else appearing, . . . the right may be exercised ‘at any time after the debt becomes due,’ [citation omitted] . . . .” Killette, 93 N.C. App. at 163, 377 S.E. 2d at 74 (emphasis added). The right of setoff is firmly rooted in equity and is, therefore, limited by the maxim: he who seeks equity must do equity. Stelling v. Wachovia Bank and Trust Co., 213 N.C. 324, 327, 197 S.E. 754, 756 (1938); see also Jefferson Standard Life Ins. Co. v. Guilford County, 226 N.C. 441, 447, 38 S.E. 2d 519, 524 (1946) (the court stated that the maxim was more than a moral guide; it was an enforceable rule). In this case the Bank’s right of setoff was also granted by contract in the promissory notes signed by defendant Lawrence. In record below, we find no evidence that First Bank acted in bad faith or with “unclean hands.”

[450]*450Initially, we dispense with the receiver’s argument that since the loans were not mature until after the receivership began, the Bank could not use its right of setoff. The receiver argues that the Bank had not made a demand for payment on the demand note. The Bank, however, had the right to be paid in full from the date of the demand note, 9 July 1986, without a formal demand for payment. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 25-3-122(l)(b) (1986). The demand note’s unpaid balance was $64,500.00 at the time of setoff, 11 August 1987. The unpaid balance of the demand note alone exceeded the amount set off, $58,680.00, not to mention the total outstanding on defendant Lawrence’s other loans and guarantees. The demand note was, therefore, due and payable before the receiver was appointed on 5 November 1986 and the amount due and payable exceeded the amount set off.

We next consider whether the Bank’s right of setoff was lost because there was no mutuality between the receiver as legal owner of the deposits and the Bank as defendant Lawrence’s creditor. The receiver contends that mutuality between First Bank and defendant Lawrence was destroyed on 5 November 1986, the date of her appointment as receiver, because N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-507.3 made her legal owner of the bank accounts. We disagree.

It is well settled that “the receiver takes the property of the insolvent debtor subject to mortgages, judgments, and other liens existing at the time of his appointment.” National Surety Corp. v. Sharpe, 236 N.C. 35, 50, 72 S.E. 2d 109, 123 (1952). Section 1-507.3 serves as a vehicle to transfer title to and rights in property to the receiver for preservation and management of the debtor’s assets. Nothing in that statute suggests that the receiver should take the property free of existing obligations. A related statute, N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-507.8, allows a court to order the sale of encumbered assets free of encumbrances if litigation is pending and the value of the property will decline pending the litigation. That section further provides that the proceeds of such a sale “remain subject to the same liens and equities of all parties in interest as was the property before sale.” N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-507.8 (1983) (emphasis added). The appointment of the receiver did not nullify the mutual obligation between the Bank and defendant Lawrence.

We next consider whether the Bank’s agreement with the receiver to accept deposits and honor checks constituted a waiver of the Bank’s setoff rights. A similar issue was addressed in Killette:

[451]

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Bluebook (online)
378 S.E.2d 207, 93 N.C. App. 446, 1989 N.C. App. LEXIS 214, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-eure-v-lawrence-ncctapp-1989.