First Nat'l Bank of Deadwood v. School District No. 1, Crook County

• Decision Date: 12 December 1896
• Citation: 6 Wyo. 485,46 P. 1090
• Parties: FIRST NAT'L BANK OF DEADWOOD v. SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1, CROOK COUNTY
• Court: Wyoming Supreme Court

46 P. 1090

6 Wyo. 485

FIRST NAT'L BANK OF DEADWOOD v. SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1, CROOK COUNTY

Supreme Court of Wyoming

December 12, 1896

Commenced in District court, August 22, 1895.

ERROR to the District Court for Crook County, HON. W. S. METZ Judge.

The material facts are stated in the opinion.

Judgment affirmed.

M Nichols, for plaintiff in error, contended that the evidence conclusively established the fact that the warrants had not been paid.

J. L. Stotts, for defendant in error, contended that the holder of the warrants, by directing that the money be left in the bank where deposited by the treasurer of the school district, made the bank its own agent, and the money sufficient to pay the warrants became its money, notwithstanding that it remained on deposit in the name of the treasurer; and that as there was sufficient evidence to justify the verdict, it should not be disturbed, citing Phelps v. McGrath, 62 Wis. 124; Ford v. Parker, 4 O. St., 576; 43 P. 636; Bucklin v. Miller, 40 P. 732; Breese v. State, 12 O. St., 155; Marshall v. Rugg, 44 P. 700.

GROESBECK, CHIEF JUSTICE. CONAWAY and POTTER, JJ., concur.

OPINION

GROESBECK, CHIEF JUSTICE.

The plaintiff in error brought suit in the district court for Crook County to recover on certain school orders or warrants issued by the officers of the defendant in error and drawn upon its treasurer in the amount of $ 1,004.40 and accruing interest thereon. The answer of defendant in error pleaded payment in full, to which a reply was filed denying payment. Upon this issue alone, the cause was submitted to a jury which found for the defendant in error, and judgment was entered for it upon the verdict. The undisputed evidence discloses that all of the warrants were held by the Deadwood National Bank, and upon its consolidation with the First National Bank of Deadwood, they became the property of the latter bank on June 7, 1894. The warrants were issued in the years 1890-91, and the funds to pay the same were apparently raised by taxation in 1891. A notice was published in the official paper of Crook County, notifying the holders of the warrants to present the same for payment in the latter part of that year, the last call being on February 12, 1892. There is no statutory authority for the issuance of such a notice, in case of school district warrants, that we have been able to find, but it was conceded on the trial that all the warrants sued on in the action were called by publication in the Sundance Gazette, by the treasurer of the school district, "as required by law," in the year 1891. There is a provision of statute that school district and other public warrants shall draw interest upon the amount expressed in the warrant at the rate of six per cent. per annum from the date of the presentation thereof for payment at the treasury or other place where the same may be made payable until there is money in the treasury for the payment thereof, and upon presentation for payment, where there is no sufficient funds for the payment of the same, the treasurer shall indorse thereon the words "not paid for want of funds," and shall date and sign the same officially. Sec. 1315, Rev. Stat., as amended by Ch. 22, Sess. Laws of 1890. The warrants, although introduced in evidence, are not before us by copies or exhibits, but no contention is made upon that point, and it will be presumed that the warrants were presented for payment and indorsed as required by law. It seems by reading the statute that interest ceases on such warrants when there is money in the treasury to pay them, and that a notice is not necessary to the holder of the warrants to stop the running of interest thereon, when funds are in the treasury to pay the same. No evidence was introduced to show that this notice or call by publication was brought home to the holder of the warrants. The district treasurer deposited the funds raised by taxation in the Crook County Bank, and notified one Higby, who was connected with that bank as an official and also with the Deadwood National Bank, to send the warrants to the former bank and take the money out, for the reason, as the treasurer stated, that there was liable to be a run on the former bank any day, and he did not want to be responsible for the warrants. Higby admitted to the treasurer that his bank at Deadwood had the warrants in controversy; and said that the Crook County Bank was "all right." This conversation occurred on October 3 or 4, 1893. A further conversation occurred between these parties, Higby and the school district treasurer, some time in June, 1894, when Higby directed the district treasurer to leave the money in the Crook County Bank. Higby admits that he had access to the books of the Crook County Bank, but says there was never a deposit there that he ever discovered to the credit of the Deadwood National...