The Erion Packing Co. v. Strain

255 N.W. 794, 62 S.D. 589, 1934 S.D. LEXIS 77
CourtSouth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedJune 21, 1934
DocketFile No. 7709.
StatusPublished

This text of 255 N.W. 794 (The Erion Packing Co. v. Strain) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering South Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
The Erion Packing Co. v. Strain, 255 N.W. 794, 62 S.D. 589, 1934 S.D. LEXIS 77 (S.D. 1934).

Opinion

RUDOLPH, J.

The Mitchell Trust Company, a corporation, organized under the provisions of chapter 2, part 18, title 6, Rev. Code 1919 (section 9032 et seq.), became insolvent and was ¡closed on the 7th day of August ,1933. To qualify as a trust company the Mitchell Trust Company had deposited with the state tréasurer of the state of South. Dakota bonds andl securities in the sum of $50,000, which were on deposit with the state treasurer at the time of the closing. In addition to doing a trust company business, the said Mitchell Trust Company did a general banking business- under the provisions of section 9033, Rev. Code 1919. The liabilities of the trust company at the time it closed consisted, in part, of ¡liabilities incurred in transacting a trust company business, and, in- part, of liabilities incurred in transacting a banking business. At the time of the closing of the trust company, the plaintiff had On deposit therein the sum of $2,376.57, which, it is conceded, Vras on deposit with the said trust company in its capacity as a trust com *590 pany. The plaintiff filed with the superintendent of hanks, who had taken charge of the liquidation of the said trust company, a claim and asked that the same -be given preference over the claims of the general banking depositors of the said institution, and that it be paid in full out of the securities and assets deposited with the state treasurer. The superintendent of banks rejected the claim as a preferred claim', and this proceeding was then brought against the superintendent of banks. The matter was submitted to the trial court upon stipulated facts. The trial court held: “That the $50,000 worth of securities now on deposit with the State Treasurere of South D'akota, from the 'Mitchell Trust Company shall be applied exclusively to the payment of the trust deposits and trust obligations of said Mitchell Trust Company until said trust deposits and trust obligations are paidi in full or said securities exhausted and that none of said securities may be used for the payment of obligations of said Mitchell Trust -Company, other than trust deposits and trust obligations until such- trust deposits and trust obligations have been paid' in full.”

This is an appeal by the superintendent of banks, and the question involved is whether the holding of the trial court set out above should be sustained.

Section 9034, Rev. Code 1919, is as follows: "Capital Stock Reqmred. The capital stock of any such corporation (trust company) shall be fixed and limited by the articles of incorporation, and must be at least fifty thousand dollars in cities or towns of less than five thousand inhabitants and shall not be less than one hundred thousand dollars in cities of five thousand inhabitants, or more, all of which shall be paid in full in lawful money of the United States. As soon as possible and not later than six months after any such company shall have commenced business under the provisions of this chapter, or before accepting of any trust as contemplated by this chapter, it shall deposit with the state treasurer not less than fifty per cent of the amount of its -capital stock, nor more than one hundred thousand dollars; such deposit to be in bonds and mortgages, or notes and mortgages on unincumbered real property within this state worth double the amount secured thereby, or bonds of the United States, or any state of the United States that has not defaulted on its principal or interest within ten years, or any organized county or township, or incorporated city or *591 town or school district, in this state or in any other state, duly authorized to be issued, and upon all of which bonds or other securities there shall have been no default in the payment of -interest or principal; which bonds and mortgages, or notes and mortgages, or bonds shall be held by the state treasurer, in trust, as security for the depositors and creditors of such corporation. * * *”

It is the contention of the appellant that the above section, wherein it provides “which' bonds and mortgages, or notes and mortgages, or bonds shall be held by the state treasurer, in trust, as security for the depositors and creditors of such corporation,” makes no distinction between the depositors and creditors of the corporation in -its capacity as a trust company, and the depositors and creditors of the corporation in its -capacity in conducting a banking business, and that it follows, therefore, that the assets in the hands of the state treasurer should be distributed among the creditors without regard to the nature of the claim involved. The clause of the statute upon which- appellant relies, when disassociated with other provisions of the law relating to trust companies, apparently sustains appellant’s contention. In interpreting this statute the important thing is to' ascertain the intent of the lawmaking power in enacting it, and the intent of the Legislature in enacting the whole act relating to trust companies should control the interpretation of any particular part of that act. Red Wing Sewer Pipe Co. v. City of Pierre, 36 S. D. 276, 154 N. W. 712. Reading the act as a whole and in the light of its history prior to its passage, we believe -it clear that it was the intention of the Legislature that the assets deposited with the state treasurer should be held by the state treasurer as security for -the creditors of the trust company, as distinguished from the creditors doing a banking business with the corporation. Under the original Trust Company Act (chapter 74, Laws 1905) corporations formed thereunder were given not only trust powers, but in substance general banking powers (section 4, subd 10, etc.). It seems quite clear under section 10 of the 1905 law that the bond there required need only be given before undertaking to execute any trust and was specifically for the protection of trust creditors as distinguished from others. It seems quite reasonable to believe that the Legislature (even if it did not so state as clearly as- might be desirable), when in 1911 and again in the present statute it omitted provision for the bond and provided *592 for the deposit here involved, manifestly intended such deposit to be (as the bond previously had been) for the protection of trust creditors as distinguished from bank or other general creditors of the corporation.

By section 9033, wherein it is provided that a corporation organized as a trust company “may also -do- a banking business,” it is further provided that in doing such business the corporation “shall be governed by, and be subject to,” the laws relating to banks, which laws are contained in a chapter separate and apart from the chapter of our Code relating to trust companies. It further appears from section 9043, that the requirement of depositing the assets with the state treasurer is a requirement looking toward the security of trust depositors rather than to the security of those doing a banking business with the corporation under the provisions of section 9033. Section 9034 provides, in part, as follows: “As soon as possible and not later than six months after any such company shall have commenced business under the provisions of this chapter, or before accepting of cmy trust as contemplated by this chapter,

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Related

Red Wing Sewer Pipe Co. v. City of Pierre
154 N.W. 712 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1915)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
255 N.W. 794, 62 S.D. 589, 1934 S.D. LEXIS 77, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/the-erion-packing-co-v-strain-sd-1934.