Territory of New Mexico ex rel. City of Albuquerque v. Matson

113 P. 816, 16 N.M. 135
New Mexico Supreme Court·Decided February 4, 1911·No. No. 1343·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinions

OPINION OP THE COURT.

WRIGHT, J.

1 The claims of the respondent that the relator, the city of Albuquerque, is not the party beneficially interested within the meaning of Section 2762, C. L. 1897, are negatived by the facts stated in the record. It there appears that the city was the owner of a considerable sum of money, more than one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars, and presumably about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, in the hands of its treasurer, and that if it should be deposited in the bank designated by ordinance, the city would receive interest for it at the rate of three or four per cent. That certainly creates a beneficial interest in the city to have the deposit made.

2 2. The question whether under Section 2424-, C. L. 1897, a city had the right to designate a depository of its money in the hands of its treasurer, turns on the meaning of the word "custody,” as used in the statute. The appellee claims that the provision: "He may be required to keep all moneys in his hands belonging to the corporation in such place of deposit as may be designated by ordinance,” is contradicted and rendered nugatory by the words immediately following: “Provided, however, no such ordinance shall be passed by which the custody of such money shall be taken from the treasurer.” It should be borne in mind that the money is all the time the property of the city, and not of the treasurer, that his duty is to receive it for the city and with it pay claims against the city which have been duly approved. Everything else is, or should be, subsidiary to this main object. In that connection, the word "custody” must mean immediate charge and control under the law, and not the final absolute control of ownership. Suppose a person to be carrying on a business through a manager, and that he directs him to deposit all the money he receives in a certain bank in his own name as manager, and subject only to his checks as manager — could it be said with any show of reason that the money is not in his custody because he did not select the bank of deposit? And is a prisoner any less in the custody of the jailer because he holds him in a jail provided by the county and designated by law as the place of confinement for such prisoner ? If, by the ordinance in question, the city had, for instance, required the treasurer to deposit in the joint names of himself and some other officer of the city, and that payments from the desposit should be made only by checks signed by both such depositors, that, obviously, would have been calculated to deprive him of the custody of the. money. But the mere designation of the bank in which he shall deposit, in his own name, and subject only to his own checks, as treasurer, without in the least restricting his right to pay out the money according to law, is not depriving him of the custody of the money. Roland v. Commonwealth, 82 Pa. 306, 319, 22 Am. Rep. 758; Klemmier v. Mt. Penn Gravity R. Co., 163 Pa. 521, 30 Atl. 274; Commonwealth v. Valsalka, 181 Pa. 17, 37 Atl. 405, 409; People v. Gibler, 78 Ill. App. 193. We conclude, then, that under the law, as it was in the compilation of 1897, cities did have the right to designate, by ordinance, the banks in which their treasurers should deposit the city funds received by them.

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Territory of New Mexico ex rel. City of Albuquerque v. Matson, 113 P. 816, 16 N.M. 135 (N.M. 1911).

113 P. 816 (Territory of New Mexico ex rel. City of Albuquerque v. Matson) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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