Commonwealth v. Dollar Sav. Bank
| Citation | 259 Pa. 138,102 A. 569 |
| Parties | COMMONWEALTH. v. DOLLAR SAVINGS BANK. |
| Decision Date | 30 June 1917 |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of Pennsylvania |
259 Pa. 138
COMMONWEALTH.
v.
DOLLAR SAVINGS BANK.
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.
June 30, 1917.
Appeal from Court of Common Pleas, Dauphin County.
Assumpsit by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania against the Dollar Savings Bank to recover unclaimed deposits. Prom a judgment for plaintiff for want of a sufficient affidavit of defense, defendant appeals. Affirmed.
From the record it appeared that Act April 17, 1872 (P. L. 62), construed in the following opinion of the Supreme Court, is entitled "An act relating to unclaimed deposits in savings banks, and transfer of stock." Section 1 refers to management, and is not material to this case. Section 2 reads as follows:
"That where any depositor with any savings fund, savings institution or savings bank whatsoever, or his legal representatives, shall omit to make any demand for the amount deposited by him, or for any part thereof, for the space of thirty years after the last deposit or payment was made by or to him, or his said representatives, no action or suit shall thereafter be brought or maintained by him or them, for the amount of such deposit, against such corporation, but the same shall be paid over instead to the state treasurer for the use of the state: Provided, that no one now having any such right of action shall be so barred, until the expiration of one year from the passage of this act: And provided, that it shall be lawful for such depositor or his legal representatives, at any time after the amount of his deposit shall have been paid over into the treasury of commonwealth as aforesaid, to institute and prosecute an action of debt therefor, against the state treasurer for the time being, in the court of common pleas for Dauphin county; and on the recovery of judgment in such action, it shall be lawful for the court to issue thereon a writ, commanding such state treasurer, or his successor in office, to cause the amount thereof, with costs, but without interest, to be paid to the party entitled in the judgment, out of any unappropriated moneys in the hands of the state treasurer, or if there be no such money unappropriated, then out of the first moneys that shall be received by him, and to enforce obedience to such writ by attachment, as is provided by law, in respect to actions against counties and townships."
Section 3:
"It shall be the duty of the treasurer or cashier, of every incorporated savings fund institution or bank in this commonwealth, on or before the first day of November, in each year after the present, to make returns to the auditor general, of the amount of all such uuclaimed deposits as referred to in the previous section of this act, with the names and residences of the depositors, so far as known, and before the first day of January, then next ensuiug, pay over the amounts so returned to the state treasurer, whose receipt therefor shall be a full and sufficient discharge to such saving fund institution or bank, from any further liability to any such depositor."
Section 4 provides for the issuing of certificates of stock by savings banks having a capital stock, and is not material to this case.
Argued before BROWN, C. J., and MESTREZAT, POTTER, STEWART, MOSCHZISKER, FRAZER, and WALLING, JJ.
George C. Burgwin, of Pittsburgh, and James A. Stranahan, of Harrisburg, for appellant.
John R. Geyer, of Harrisburg, W. I. Swoope, of Clearfield, and J. B. Eichenauer, of Pittsburgh, for appellee.
MOSCHZISKER, J. The commonwealth of Pennsylvania sued the Dollar Savings Bank, of Pittsburgh, to recover the sum of $9,069.29, with interest from December 1, 1913, which it alleged was the aggregate of moneys placed in that institution by 24 depositors "who had omitted to make any demand for the amount deposited by them...
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