Consolidated School Dist. No. 2 v. Gower Bank

• Decision Date: 28 September 1932
• Docket Number: No. 31766.,31766.
• Citation: 53 S.W.2d 280
• Parties: CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL DIST. NO. 2 OF CLINTON COUNTY v. GOWER BANK OF GOWER, MO., et al.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

53 S.W.2d 280

CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL DIST. NO. 2 OF CLINTON COUNTY v. GOWER BANK OF GOWER, MO., et al.

No. 31766.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.

September 28, 1932.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Clinton County; Guy B. Park, Judge.

Action by the Consolidated School District No. 2 of Clinton County against the Gower Bank of Gower, Missouri, and another. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendants appeal.

Cause transferred to the Kansas City Court of Appeals.

Culver, Phillip & Voorhees, of St. Joseph, for appellants.

Shultz & Owen, of St. Joseph, for creditors of bank.

Daniel H. Frost, of Plattsburg, for respondent.

COOLEY, C.

Action to have a claim against a bank in process of liquidation adjudged to be a preferred claim. From a judgment of the circuit court granting the preference sought, the bank and the commissioner of finance appealed, the appeal being granted to this court. The facts are undisputed, the cause having been submitted in the circuit court upon an agreed statement of facts.

Prior to February 24, 1931, the Gower Bank, a banking corporation, was doing a general banking business in Clinton county. On or about that date, having become insolvent, it was closed and placed in the hands of the state commissioner of finance for liquidation. The claimant, plaintiff herein, is and was a consolidated school district organized under the provisions of chapter 57, § 9194 et seq., R. S. 1929 (Mo. St. Ann. § 9194 et seq.). Its treasurer, Curtis Poe, had deposited its funds in his name as treasurer in said Gower Bank, and when the bank closed there were thus on deposit in the bank various funds belonging to the district aggregating $10,131.30. On April 14, 1931, Mr. Poe, for the district, filed with the special deputy commissioner of finance in charge of the liquidation of the bank three claims, identical except in amount, each for money belonging to certain accounts or funds of the district, and aggregating said sum of $10,131.30. On September 9, 1931, the district filed in the office of the clerk of the circuit court of Clinton county its petition to have its claim for the whole amount adjudged to be a preferred claim. On September 16, 1931, the commissioner of finance allowed the claims. He did not determine the question of preference, having no jurisdiction so to do. At the succeeding October term of the circuit court, the court heard the district's claim for preference and allowed it, adjudging the claim to be a preferred claim. From that judgment, this appeal was taken. It was admitted at the trial that when the bank closed it was indebted to the claimant in said sum of $10,131.30 which the commissioner had allowed, and the only dispute is as to whether or not the claim is entitled to preference.

This court is without jurisdiction, appellate jurisdiction of the case being in the Court of Appeals. Our jurisdiction has not been challenged by the parties, but it is our duty to notice and determine that question. Jurisdiction cannot be conferred by acquiescence of the parties. See State ex rel. Cravens to Use of Consolidated School District No. 2 of Ft. Worth County v. Thompson et al., 322 Mo. 444, 17 S.W.(2d) 342, and cases cited.

Treating the three claims as one, the amount in dispute is not the entire sum of $10,131.30 which is admittedly due the claimant, but the difference between the sum claimant would realize therefrom as a common claim, and the amount that might be realized therefrom as a preferred claim. What that difference is cannot be determined from the...