Daurelle v. Traders Federal Sav. & Loan Ass'n of Parkersburg

• Decision Date: 03 July 1958
• Docket Number: No. 10927,10927
• Citation: 143 W.Va. 674,104 S.E.2d 320
• Court: West Virginia Supreme Court
• Parties: George P. DAURELLE v. TRADERS FEDERAL SAVINGS & LOAN ASSOCIATION OF PARKERSBURG et al.

Page 320

104 S.E.2d 320

143 W.Va. 674

George P. DAURELLE v. TRADERS FEDERAL SAVINGS & LOAN ASSOCIATION OF PARKERSBURG et al.

No. 10927.

Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.

Submitted May 27, 1958.

Decided July 3, 1958.

Syllabus by the Court

1. The general rule is that where an administrative remedy is provided by statute or by rules and regulations having the force and effect of law, relief must be sought from the administrative body, and such remedy must be exhausted before the courts will act.

2. The rule which requires the exhaustion of administrative remedies is inapplicable where no administrative remedy is provided by law.

3. In the absence of a statute or rules and regulations which confer the right of inspection upon a member of a federal savings and loan association, an individual member of such association has no common-law or statutory right to inspect its books and records.

4. Under Section 7, Part 144.1, Subchapter C, Title 24, Code of Federal Regulations, a federal savings and loan association has the right to redeem, by lot or otherwise as the board of directors may determine, all or any part of its savings accounts on June 30 or December 31, in the manner and subject to the conditions provided by such rules and regulations, and upon compliance with the requirements of such rules and regulations the redemption of a savings account of a member is valid and terminates his membership in such association.

5. He who seeks relief by mandamus must show a clear legal right to the remedy.

Steptoe & Johnson, Stanley C. Morris, Jr., Clarksburg, for plaintiff in error.

Wm. Bruce Hoff, Parkersburg, for defendants in error.

HAYMOND, President.

This is a proceeding in mandamus instituted in the Circuit Court of Wood County in which the petitioner, George P. Daurelle, seeks a writ to require the defendants, Traders Federal Savings and Loan Association of Parkersburg, a corporation, Virginia Engle, its president, George E. Prince, its secretary and treasurer, and Jess Bango, Judd Dudley, Leland G. Merrill, Robert Burk, George E. Prince, Virginia Engle, Laura Treadway, John T. Jennings, and A. C. Woofter, its directors, to permit the petitioner, a member of Traders Federal Savings and Loan Association of Parkersburg in good standing, to examine and copy from its records the names and addresses of all its members for the purpose of soliciting proxies from such members for use at the annual meeting to enable the petitioner to seek election to membership on its board of directors and to order and direct the defendants not to strike the name of the petitioner from the membership records of the association or to redeem his savings account in and with the defendant association.

After requests by the petitioner for permission to obtain a list of the names and addresses of the members of the association were refused by the defendants and after he had been advised by the counsel of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh that the only way in which he could obtain a list of the names of the members of the association was to apply for such relief to a court of competent jurisdiction, the petitioner filed his original petition in this proceeding on November 29, 1956, and obtained a rule returnable December 4, 1956, against the defendants, Traders Federal Savings and Loan Association, Virginia Engle, and George E. Prince, which date was extended to December 7, 1956. On December 5, 1956, the petitioner filed an amended and supplemental petition and obtained a rule returnable December 7, 1956, against the defendants, Jess Bango, Judd Dudley, Leland G. Merrill, Robert Burk, George E. Prince, Virginia Engle, Laura Treadway, John T. Jennings, and A. C. Woofter, as directors of the defendant association.

To the original and the amended and supplemental petitions the defendants on December 7, 1956, filed their written demurrer in which numerous grounds were assigned. Pending action on the demurrer to the original and the amended and supplemental petitions, the petitioner on December 21, 1956, filed a second amended and supplemental petition upon which a rule was awarded returnable December 29, 1956, the return date of which was extended until January 3, 1957, at which time the defendants filed their written demurrer to the second amended and supplemental petition which superseded the two former petitions.

By final order entered April 22, 1957, the circuit court, being of the opinion that the pleadings filed by the petitioner were not susceptible of further amendment and that it was not necessary to rule upon the demurrer to the original and the amended and supplemental petitions, discharged the rules awarded on those pleadings, sustained the demurrer to the second amended and supplemental petition, discharged the rule awarded on that petition, dismissed this proceeding, and awarded costs against the petitioner. To that judgment of dismissal this Court awarded this writ of error upon the application of the petitioner. The defendant John T. Jennings has died during the pendency of this proceeding and the petitioner seeks no relief against his estate on this writ of error.

The circuit court sustained the demurrer to the second amended and supplemental petition on substantially these assigned grounds: (1) The petitioner has failed to invoke and exhaust an available administrative remedy to obtain the relief which he seeks and, for that reason, is not entitled to judicial relief and can not maintain this proceeding in mandamus; (2) he has no common-law or statutory right to obtain from the defendant association a list of the names and addresses of its members and (3) the defendant association under the provisions of its charter, the form of which is expressly provided by and included in the rules and regulations promulgated by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, had the right to redeem the savings account of the petitioner on December 31, 1956, and, by the redemption of such account, to terminate the membership of the petitioner in the association as of that date.

The petitioner assigns as error the action of the circuit court (1) in ruling that the petitioner has not exhausted his available administrative remedies; (2) in ruling that the petitioner does not have a common-law right to a list of shareholders of the defendant association; and (3) in ruling that it did not have jurisdiction to compel the officers and directors of the defendant association to retain the name of the petitioner on its list of members or to prevent it from redeeming his savings account.

The material allegations in the second amended and supplemental petition concerning the efforts of the petitioner to invoke administrative remedies available to him are, in substance, that the Home Loan Bank Board is the agency of the United States Government charged with the supervision of all federal savings and loan associations; that the Home Loan Bank Board of Pittsburgh is the regional office of the Home Loan Bank Board and has local supervision of the defendant association; that petitioner demanded of the Home Loan Bank Board of Pittsburgh enforcement of his right to examine the list of the members of the defendant association by a letter dated July 19, 1956, addressed to the Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh in which he inquired how a depositor or a group of depositors could obtain access to the membership rolls of the defendant association for the purpose of making an effort to improve its board of directors; that he was denied any and all administrative relief by a letter dated July 20, 1956, written by the counsel of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh which contained the statements that members of a federal savings and loan association are those who hold savings accounts in it, that information as to who are members is of a confidential nature which such associations are not prone to disclose, that in that respect members of such an association are in a different category from stockholders in general business corporations, that if a member of such association can show good reason to obtain a list of members in order to protect himself or other members he can, upon a showing to a court of competent jurisdiction that such information is necessary, obtain an order compelling the association to open its books to him, and that the method indicated is the only way in which a member can obtain access to the rolls of the association; and that petitioner had made other and subsequent demands, both oral and written, upon the Home Loan Bank Board and the Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh for assistance and relief 'without avail.'

The material allegations in the second amended and supplemental petition, in which the petitioner insists that he is entitled to a list of the names and addresses of the members of the defendant association, are, in effect, that the defendant association is a corporate, nonstock home owners loan and thrift association, organized under and by virtue of the laws of the United States; that its charter provides that all persons holding savings accounts with or borrowing from it are members or shareholders and are entitled to vote in accordance with a prescribed formula at all meetings of its members; that it is governed by a board of directors of not less than five nor more than fifteen persons who must also be members; that the directors are elected for a term of three years at the annual meeting of the members; that approximately one-third of the board of directors is elected at the annual meeting; that its by-laws provide that the annual meeting shall be held on the third Wednesday in January of each year; that both the charter and the by-laws provide that the votes of its members may be cast by proxy; that its management has in the past and will again actively solicit proxies from its members and vote such proxies at the annual meeting for candidates of its choice for members of the board of directors; that the...