Farmers State Bank of Marshall v. Mewherter

• Decision Date: 05 June 1934
• Docket Number: Case Number: 23300
• Citation: 33 P.2d 1091,1934 OK 339,168 Okla. 532
• Parties: FARMERS STATE BANK OF MARSHALL et al. v. MEWHERTER.
• Court: Oklahoma Supreme Court

1934 OK 339

33 P.2d 1091

168 Okla. 532

FARMERS STATE BANK OF MARSHALL et al. v. MEWHERTER.

Case Number: 23300

Supreme Court of Oklahoma

Decided: June 5, 1934

Syllabus

¶0 1. Banks and Banking--Owner of Certificato of Deposit Held Entitled to Preferred Claim Against Assets of State Bank Failing After Sending to Forwarding Bank Its Draft on Correspondent Bank in Payment of Certificate.

Where a certificate of deposit issued by a state bank was thereafter indorsed and delivered by the owner to a third party in settlement of a personal transaction between the owner and third party, and said certificate was thereafter deposited by said third party with another bank for collection, and said bank after receiving the same forwarded said certificate of deposit to the bank issuing the same with a letter accompanying said certificate containing the words, "We enclose for collection and return as listed below," and thereafter said bank issuing said certificate of deposit, having on hand sufficient cash to pay the same, after the receipt of said certificate, issued its draft on its correspondent bank, marking said certificate of deposit paid, and having entered upon its cash book an item for the amount of said certificate of deposit, and sent said draft to its forwarding bank, which correspondent bank at the time said draft was drawn and at all times thereafter had on deposit to the credit of said drawing bank a sufficient amount to pay said draft, but which draft said drawee bank refused to pay when presented because the Bank Commissioner had taken charge of the affairs of said hank issuing said draft, held, that the owner of the certificate of deposit has a preferred claim against the assets of said failed bank.

2. Same--Judgment in Favor of Owner of Certificate of Deposit Sustained.

Record examined; judgment of the trial court affirmed.

Appeal from District Court, Logan County; Freeman E. Miller, Judge.

Action by Jennie Mewherter against the Farmers State Bank of Marshall (in liquidation) et al. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendants appeal. Affirmed.

Henry S. Johnston, E. S. Lowther, M. B. Cope, and Scott Ferris, for plaintiffs in error.

Harry C. Kirkendall, for defendant in error.

MCNEILL, J.

¶1 This action involves the question of whether the owner of a certificate of deposit issued by a state bank can have the same allowed as a preferred claim out of the assets of said bank after said bank has failed and is in the hands of the State Bank Commissioner for liquidation.

¶2 It appears that plaintiff received a certificate of deposit on November 1, 1930, in the amount of $ 2,000, issued by the Farmers State Bank of Marshall, Okla.; that on December 1, 1930, plaintiff indorsed and delivered the same to J. C. Todd of Enid, Okla., in settlement of a personal transaction between her and said Todd relating to the purchase of 20 shares of stock of Oklahoma Natural Gas; that on the same day said Todd deposited said certificate of deposit with the Enid Bank & Trust Company of Enid, Okla., for collection; that on December 1, 1930, said Enid Bank & Trust Company forwarded the same to the Farmer's State Bank at Marshall with a letter accompanying said certificate containing these words, "We enclose for collection and return as listed below"; that said certificate was received by the Farmers State Bank of Marshall sometime between December 1, and December 5, 1930; that on December 5, 1930, the Farmers State Bank of Marshall, after receiving said certificate from said Enid Bank & Trust Company, issued its draft on the First National Bank of Guthrie, its correspondent bank, payable to the Enid Bank & Trust Company in the amount of $ 2,000, marked said certificate of deposit paid, entered upon its cash book an item $ 2,000 for the payment of said certificate of deposit, and then forwarded said draft to the said Enid bank.

¶3 The trial court in its findings of fact at this stage of the proceedings found:

"That at the time, or about the same time, it executed its draft in the sum of $ 2,000 drawn on the First National Bank of Guthrte, its correspondent bank, and transmitted the same by mail to the Enid Bank & Trust Company and returned to it the letter which had been sent to the Farmers State Bank of Marshall by the Enid Bank & Trust Company transmitting the certificate of deposit' that the Enid Bank & Trust Company, in due course, sent this draft to the First National Bank & Trust Company at Oklahoma City, which transmitted it to the Federal Reserve Bank at Oklahoma City, and about the 8th or 9th of December, the draft was received by the First National Bank at Guthrie, Okla., on which the draft was drawn and which was the correspondent bank of the Farmers State Bank of Marshall. In the meantime the Farmers State Bank of Marshall failed about the 8th day of December, 1930, and the First National Bank of Guthrie, upon notification of that fact, refused to pay the draft and returned it through the same channels back to the Enid Bank & Trust Company, which upon its return, notified Mr. Todd that it was unpaid and Mr. Todd in turn notified Mrs. Mewherter that it was unpaid, and the draft was returned to Mrs. Mewherter because of failure to receive the liquidation of it. That afterwards a claim was filed with the Stale Bank Commissioner's liquidating agent for a preference claim, for the allowance of $ 2,000 as a preferred claim, which request was refused by the liquidating agent, and later in March was refused by the Bank Commissioner of the state of Oklahoma. It also appears that at the time the entry was made on the books of the Farmers State Bank of Marshall by the cashier that they had more than sufficient cash on hand to pay the certificate of deposit, and that at the time the draft upon the First National Bank of Guthrie was received by the First National Bank of Guthrie it had on deposit to the credit of the Farmers State Bank of Marshall more than $ 2,000, in fact, in the sum of more than $ 15,000. It further appears from the testimony that neither the Enid Bank & Trust Company nor Mr. Todd had any checking or depository account on deposit with the Farmers State Bank of Marshall at any of the dates mentioned, and from the testimony it appears that they had no intention to open an account with the Farmers State Bank of Marshall, at any of the dates mentioned. And the relief sought by the plaintiff herein is for the

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