First Nat. Bank v. Greene

• Decision Date: 16 December 1908
• Citation: 114 S.W. 322
• Parties: FIRST NAT. BANK OF OWENTON v. GREENE et al. (three cases).
• Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals

114 S.W. 322

FIRST NAT. BANK OF OWENTON v. GREENE et al. (three cases).

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

December 16, 1908

Appeal from Circuit Court, Owen County.

"Not to be officially reported."

Actions by Margaret E. Greene and others, Annie May Greene and others, and John Howard Greene and others against the First National Bank of Owenton, Ky. Judgments for plaintiffs, and defendant appeals. Affirmed.

W. B Moody, Botts & Perry, and W. B. Lindsey, for appellant.

Chas Strother, for appellees.

NUNN J.

John W Greene died several years since in Owen county, Ky. By his will he devised to his widow, who was his second wife, and his four children, one-fifth each of his real and personal estate. The child by his first wife was an adult and the three by his last wife were infants. R. C. Greene was the executor, and by the terms of the will John W. Greene's widow, Addie W. Greene, was permitted to and did qualify as the guardian of her three children without bond. The executor paid to her, as guardian for these children, several payments, altogether amounting to something near $2,600, and at the same time paid to her, her one-fifth interest. She deposited with appellant bank all these sums in her individual name. A considerable portion of the children's part she loaned, in her own name, to the adult heir referred to without security. After this she executed a mortgage for the benefit of her children on her real estate to secure $2,100 of the children's means which she had disposed of. She had also expended the balance of the $2,600. When the executor made his last settlement of the estate, he gave to her a check on appellant for $356.57 and a check for a like amount to each of the three children. Just before these checks were written by the cashier of appellant, Greene, the executor, had a private conversation with the cashier, in which Greene called his attention to the fact that the children's guardian, Addie W. Greene, had loaned to their half-brother the most of the money due them, and without requiring any security, and asked the cashier if he would not deposit the children's money in the bank and allow them interest. After the cashier consulted his assistant, he announced that this would be done. But, instead of doing this, their mother, the guardian, delivered the checks to the cashier, as the cashier testifies, with a request on her part that they be deposited to her individual credit. The mother testified, however, that she made no statement at the time as to whom the amounts of the checks should be credited. This money remained in appellant bank to the credit of the guardian for nearly 10 months, when appellant, without the request or directions of any one, charged the guardian's account with two notes executed by F. C. Greene, the half-brother, and upon which the guardian had become surety. One of the notes was for something over $800, the other for something over $300, and this left a balance due, as shown by the bank books, the sum of $88, which was afterwards paid on a check of the guardian.

This action was brought by the children to recover from the bank the value of these...