Driscoll v. Northwestern National Bank of St. Paul

• Decision Date: 13 August 1973
• Docket Number: 73-1073.,No. 73-1019,73-1019
• Citation: 484 F.2d 173
• Parties: Edward J. DRISCOLL and Marvin L. Rye, Independent Bankers of Minnesota, Commercial State Bank, Appellants, v. NORTHWESTERN NATIONAL BANK OF ST. PAUL and William B. Camp, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

484 F.2d 173 (1973)

Edward J. DRISCOLL and Marvin L. Rye, Independent Bankers of Minnesota, Commercial State Bank, Appellants, v. NORTHWESTERN NATIONAL BANK OF ST. PAUL and William B. Camp, Appellees.

Nos. 73-1019, 73-1073.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted June 14, 1973.

Decided August 13, 1973.

Steven M. Gunn, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., St. Paul, Minn., made argument for appellant, Driscoll.

Michael H. Stein, Atty., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., made argument for appellee, Camp.

Rodger Nordbye, Minneapolis, Minn., made argument for appellee, Northwestern National Bank.

Before Mr. Justice CLARK,^* HEANEY, Circuit Judge, and SCHATZ, District Judge.^**

CLARK, Associate Justice.

This declaratory judgment action presents the relatively narrow question of whether appellee Northwestern National Bank of St. Paul, Minnesota (Northwestern), is operating more than one branch bank in violation of state and federal law. This issue was submitted to the District Court and was decided by it on cross-motions for summary judgment. Northwestern presently operates two paying and receiving facilities in addition to its main banking floor. One such facility, which was installed in February, 1971, consists of three walk-up television tellers in the Skyway Building located some 300 feet west of Northwestern's main banking office, and the other houses six teller stations in the Endicott Building, approximately one and one-half blocks east of the main office. The main office and the two detached facilities are all within a 12 block skyway system that provides covered passageways between buildings and places of business in a section of downtown St. Paul. The District Court, 349 F.Supp. 245, ruled that the 1965 informal action of the Comptroller of the Currency held the walk-up TV tellers to be an extension of its main banking premises and consequently that, under the Minnesota state statute of June, 1971, Northwestern would be entitled to operate a detached facility in the Endicott Building on the same skyway pedestrian concourse but located about a block and a half east of Northwestern's main office and across the street.

We have carefully considered the record before the Comptroller of Currency, as well as the one before the trial court, and have concluded that the summary judgment must be reversed and the action remanded to the Comptroller for further consideration.

1. The Facts:

In 1965, before the present main banking premises of Northwestern had been built, it wrote the Comptroller of Currency soliciting his opinion as to whether its proposed walk-up TV teller facility would constitute a "branch bank" requiring his approval. See 12 U.S.C. § 36. Northwestern represented that its proposed new main banking offices in Capital Centre, then under construction, would "occupy continuous space running from a depository and multi-purpose tellers . . . through to the main concourse, approximately 300 feet away, from which the major banking facilities . . . would fan out." The walk-up TV teller facility now in controversy would be located about 300 feet away from the main banking premises but connected by a telephonic communication, by a pneumatic tube for the speedy transfer of cash and by a tunnel connection under the street for the transfer of freight as well as by a continuous and uninterrupted pedestrian concourse "along which it is possible that the Northwestern will ultimately be leasing all or a major portion of the `retail space.'" Some six weeks thereafter the Comptroller of Currency replied that he did not consider the proposed three TV teller stations to be a branch bank but rather an extension of the main banking premises: "These locations, because of their proximity, will constitute but one operation in the public mind." Certification of the walk-up TV teller facility, he advised, was thus not required and no certification was issued. After completion of its new main banking facility, Northwestern put this TV teller facility into operation in February, 1971.

In June, 1971, Minnesota amended its banking laws to permit each state bank one "detached facility," where previously no branching at all had been permitted. 1971 Minnesota Session Laws, Ch. 855. The statute defined the term "detached facility" as well as "attached facility" with exact precision, placing the three TV teller stations of Northwestern clearly within the term "detached facility" and limiting the number of such facilities to one. Northwestern, however, applied to the Comptroller of Currency for permission to establish the Endicott facility as its one detached facility under the new state law. Several of the appellants here opposed the application and participated in a hearing held by the Comptroller of Currency. However, the application was approved whereupon they brought this suit founded on the proposition that both the walk-up TV teller facility and the Endicott one were branch banks and that Minnesota law only permitted one such facility. The District Court agreed with the Comptroller of Currency and entered the summary judgment aforesaid.

2. Branch Banking:

It is settled that the McFadden Act, which, as amended, is the controlling statute here, was "intended to place national and state banks on a basis of `competitive equality' insofar as branch banking was concerned." First National Bank v. Walker Bank and Trust Co., 385 U.S. 252, 261, 87 S.Ct. 492, 497, 17 L.Ed.2d 343 (1966); First National Bank...