Amos v. Baird

• Decision Date: 11 July 1928
• Citation: 117 So. 789,96 Fla. 181
• Parties: AMOS, Comptroller, et al. v. BAIRD et al.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

117 So. 789

96 Fla. 181

AMOS, Comptroller, et al. v. BAIRD et al.

Florida Supreme Court, Division B.

July 11, 1928

Separate suits by Genevieve C. Baird and others against Ernest Amos as Comptroller, and others, which were consolidated. From the decree, defendants appeal.

Reversed in part, and in part affirmed.

Syllabus by the Court

SYLLABUS

Cashier's check given dopositor as mere acknowledgment of indebtedness does not amount to assignment giving him better right against receiver by reason thereof. A cashier's check given to a depositor as a mere acknowledgment of indebtedness on the part of the bank to him, being in legal effect the same as a certificate of deposit or a certified check, does not amount to an assignment to him by the bank of the amount of the check, so as to give him any better right against the receiver of the bank than he had by reason of his original deposit.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Glades County; George W Whitehurst, judge.

COUNSEL

Lawrence & Kash, of Sebring, for appellants.

Wm. A Sheppard, Jr., and Henderson, Franklin & Christie, all of Ft. Myers, for appellees.

OPINION

BUFORD J.

This appeal is from a decree in the consolidated causes wherein certain claimants insisting that each of them respectively held preferred claims against the Bank of Moore Haven, a state banking corporation, which had become insolvent, and in which the final decree was as follows:

'The above-entitled cause coming on to be heard on this 31st day of October, A. D. 1927, on petition of the receiver for an order to consolidate the claims of the several claimants, and the court, having heard the testimony, and having jurisdiction of the subject-matter and the parties, finds that the following claims against the Bank of Moore Haven and the receiver of said bank, to wit: Genevieve C. Baird, in the sum of $321; P. G. Waldron in the sum of $2,652; Fred H. Parker in the sum of $6,292.22; M. Valaer in the sum of $900; Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company in the sum of $14,191.13; N. F. Stone and Lake Ocechobee Colony Development Company in the sum of $1,800--are in each and every case a preferred claim of the respective parties, and each and every of said claims is payable out of the money in the hands of the receiver aforesaid.

'The court further finds that at the time the said receiver took charge of the said bank there was on hand in said bank in cash and in other banks a sum greater than the total sum of the said preferred claims and that there is now in the hands of said receiver a sum greater than the total sum of the said preferred claims.

'It was thereupon ordered, adjudged, and decreed that the said receiver and the comptroller of the state of Florida, Ernest Amos, pay the said preferred claims, each and every, in full out of the said money on hand, within 30 days from this date.

'Done and ordered in chambers at Ft. Myers, Fla., this 31st day of October, A. D. 1927.

'Geo. W. Whitehurst, Judge.'

It will not be necessary to discuss the status of the claim of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company which was presented in this suit in the form of a decree in a separate suit by the railroad company against the receiver of the bank, because that decree, of which copy is presented in this cause, was brought to this court on appeal, and has been affirmed, and therefore the decree in this case, in so far as it applies to the claim of the Atlantic Coast Railroad Company, is also affirmed.

The claim of Martin Valaer is based upon the following state of facts:

'That on the 16th day of July, 1926, in the afternoon, he went to the office of the said Bank of Moore Haven and doing business in Moore Haven, to buy a draft to pay for a certain piece of land and other indebtedness owing by him to one Mrs. J. A Johnson; that on said date he purchased from said Bank of Moore Haven a draft,...