Turner v. American National Bank

1921 OK 348, 201 P. 661, 83 Okla. 259, 1921 Okla. LEXIS 355
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedOctober 11, 1921
Docket10251
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 1921 OK 348 (Turner v. American National Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Turner v. American National Bank, 1921 OK 348, 201 P. 661, 83 Okla. 259, 1921 Okla. LEXIS 355 (Okla. 1921).

Opinion

PITCHFORD, J.

The plaintiff in error commenced this action against the American National Bank, in the district court of Oklahoma- county, Oklahoma, to recover judgment for the sum of $15,250:

It appears that Alva Smith was indebted to the plaintiff in the sum of $15,250, which amount was secured by a pledge of 100 shares of the capital stock of the Western National Banlj. The capital stock of the last-named bank had been purchased by Smith in July, 1917. At the timé of the purchase, Turner furnished Smith with $15,250, in order to complete the payments. After the sale of the stock had been consummated, Smith became its president. In November following, the Western National Bank found itself in an insolvent condition, and was taken over and merged into the American National Bank. About, tliis time, Turner importuned Smith for the payment of $15,250, whereupon Smith and Turner called upon Mr. Johnson, president of the American National Bank, Smith wanted Johnson to pay Turner the $15,250 and charge the amount to the -stockholders’ account of the Western National Bank. This, Mr. Johnson refused to do.

After the interview with Mr. Johnson, Smith and Turner then had a talk with Mr. Carson, vice president of the American National Bank. At that time, Mr. Smith informed Mr. Carson that he had a number of cheeks, amounting to something over $17,000, payable to the First Mortgage Cattle Loan Company, and wanted the defendant bank to receive the checks as a deposit and to credit Turner’s account with $15,250, and place the balance to the credit of the First Mortgage Cattle Loan Company. This arrangement was refused by Mr. Carson, who stated at the time that the bank would take the checks, and, if they were paid, that the account of the First Mortgage Cattle Loan Company would be credited with the amount and the loan company could issue its checks to Mr. Turner. Mr. Smith replied that this plan did "not suit him, and then turned to Mr. Turner and informed him they would arrange the matter some other way.

After this conversation with Mr. Carson, Smith and Turner then went to Dunlop, a teller of the defendant bank, and Smith arranged with Dunlop to do practically the very thing refused by Mr. Carson; that is, Turner’s account was credited with $15,250. and a deposit slip was given to Smith for the amount. The balance of the checks, amounting to something over $2,000, was deposited to the credit of the First Mortgage Cattle Loan Company. Smith thereupon delivered to Turner the deposit slip showing the credit to his account, whereupon Turner surrendered to Smith the 100 shares of stock of the Western National Bank, and Smith in turn delivered the same to the bank. The transaction with Dunlop was made after banking hours on Friday afternoon. On the following Monday Mr. Johnson was informed of the arrangements made with Dunlop, and thereupon, by telephonic and other inquiries, ascertained that payment of the checks so deposited had been refused, except two, one for $7.949.69 and one for $300. lie thereupon telephoned Mr. Turner to come to the hank and informed him of the condition of the chepks and stated that the hank would charge back, to the account of Turner, and the account of the First Mortgage Cattle Loan Company, the respective amounts for which they had received credit, and tendered the shares of stock back to Turner, which were refused, and Turner immediately filed suit against the defendant hank to recover the deposit.

Smith seems to have been a man of diversified talents and various pursuits; he was not only president of the Western National, Bank, but was also president of the First Mortgage Cattle Loan Company, as well as president of the C. M. Keys Commission Company.

*261 The Keys Commission Company had received from one H. .A. Smith 120 head of cattle for sale on commission. These cattle were covered ‘by a mortgage to the First Mortgage Cattle Loan Company; the cattle were sold by the commission company, and, knowing that the cattle were mortgaged, it issued the check, amounting to $7,949.69, payable to the mortgagee. This mortgage, however, had been assigned to the American National Bank, and the check for $7,949.69 was included among the checks deposited by Smith at the time the deposit slip was issued to Turner. The Keys Commission Company, learning that Smith was attempting to use this check in payment of his private indebtedness, and that the mortgage to the Mortgage Cattle Loan Cmpany had been assigned, filed suit against the American National Bank, Smith et al., to which Turner was made a party, seeking to restrain Smith from using the check as he was attempting, and have the proceeds of the cheek paid to the assignee of the mortgage. The two cases were consolidated and tried together. The trial court rendered judgment denying Turner any relief against the American National Bank, and also rendered judgment requiring the defendant bank to apply the proceeds of the check issued by the Keys Commission Company upon the indebtedness of the First Mortgage Cattle Loan Company.

The plaintiff in error contends that the act of the defendant bank, in crediting the account of Turner with the sum of $15,250, at the request of Smith, was equivalent to the deposit by Turner of a cheek drawn by a depositor of the bank, and that when said credit was made, this was equivalent to an actual payment, and the bank’s indebtedness to Turner for the amount became fixed and irrevocable; that there is no distinction between an oral request to the bank to charge one account and credit another and a request in writing, so to do when the bank has acted on such oral request. In order to sustain this contention, plaintiff lias cited numerous authorities, which we have carefully examined. The authorities cited t ’ plaintiff establish the following rule: That where a check is issued by a customer of a bank, and the holder of the check presents the same for payment and has the amount represented by the check placed to his credit, the banlc becomes at once the debtor of the party presenting the check and cannot, on failure of the drawer of the check to pay the same, charge off the credit to the holder of the check. The authorities cited by the plaintiff are numerous and all go to this extent; the rule being well stated in the case of First National Bank of Cincinnati v. Burkhardt, 100 U. S. 689, 25 L. Ed. 766, wherein it is said:

“When a check on itself is offered to a bank as a deposit, the bank lias the option to accept or reject it, or to receive it upon such conditions as may be agreed upon. If it be rejected, there is no room for any doubt or question between the parties. If on the other hand, the check is offered as a deposit and received as a deposit, there being no fraud and the check genuine, the parties are no less bound and concluded than in the former ease. Neither can disavow or repudiate what has been done. The case is simply one of an executed contract. There are the requisite parties, the requisite consideration, and the requisite concurrence and assent of the minds of those concerned.”

In the instant case, however, no check was issued by Smith to Turner. Smith simply deposited the checks and had Turner’s account credited with the amount Smith owed him. The authorities are practically uniform in holding that a deposit slip by a bank is nothing more than a receipt and is open to explanation as |o the conditions and circumstances surrounding the issuance thereof.

In American Life Ins. Co. v. Citizens’ State Bank of Headrick, 66 Okla. 198. 168 Pac. 437, L. R. A.

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Bluebook (online)
1921 OK 348, 201 P. 661, 83 Okla. 259, 1921 Okla. LEXIS 355, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/turner-v-american-national-bank-okla-1921.