Gift v. Love

• Citation: 144 So. 562,164 Miss. 442
• Decision Date: 21 November 1932
• Docket Number: 30169
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Mississippi
• Parties: GIFT et al. v. LOVE, SUPERINTENDENT OF BANKS

144 So. 562

164 Miss. 442

GIFT et al. v. LOVE, SUPERINTENDENT OF BANKS

No. 30169

Supreme Court of Mississippi

November 21, 1932

(Division B.)

1. BANKS AND BANKING. Bank stockholder's retransfer of stock to bank in satisfaction of a debt held not to release stockholder's double liability until next examination of bank (Code 1930, section 3803).

This was so since word "another," within Code 1930 section 3803, providing that stockholder's liability on transfer to "another" shall not cease until next examination of bank, includes bank in which stock is held.

2. BANKS AND BANKING.

Statute imposing double liability on bank stockholders must be strictly construed (Code 1930, sections 3803, 3815).

3 STATUTES.

In construing statute, intent and purpose must be considered.

4. BANKS AND BANKING.

Superintendent of banks held unauthorized to approve settlement by going bank, whereby bank took stockholder's stock in satisfaction of debt and released claim against deceased stockholder's land.

5 ESTOPPEL.

State cannot be estopped by unauthorized acts of officers.

6. BANKS AND BANKING.

Superintendent of banks, seeking to enforce bank stockholder's double liability, held not estopped by unauthorized approval of bank's compromise settlement (Code 1930, section 3815).

7. BANKS AND BANKING.

When bank became insolvent and closed, deceased stockholder's double liability matured, standing in same class as other unsecured debts, and became charge on estate's entire personalty and realty (Code 1930, sections 1643, 3803).

8. DESCENT AND DISTRIBUTION.

Heirs hold legal title to land subject to charge of ancestor's debts, though indebtedness be not ascertained at death (Code 1930, section 1643).

9. DESCENT AND DISTRIBUTION. Where devise was void and deceased bank stockholder's heirs obtained judgment against testamentary trustee for proceeds of land sold, judgment claim held inferior to bank's double liability claim on stock, and heirs took remaining land subject to such liability (Code 1930, sections 1643, 3815).

Fact that heirs obtained judgment against testamentary trustee for proceeds of land converted into money, which land heirs were entitled to by inheritance, did not put heirs in same class with debt due by estate to bank, growing out of subscription to stock of bank, since heirs' claim was based on their heirship, not on any obligation decedent had undertaken before his death.

10. BANKS AND BANKING.

Before bank went into liquidation, no compromise settlement could be made between bank, stockholder's heirs, and testamentary trustee, which would result in defeating bank's right to enforce double liability (Code 1930, sections 1643, 3815).

11. BANKS AND BANKING. Bank's quitclaim deed of deceased stock-holder's and debtor's land to heirs in settlement transaction, whereby heirs took certain assets in satisfaction of their judgment against estate which was inferior to bank's claim, held not supported by consideration (Code 1930, sections 1643, 3815).

There was no consideration for bank's quitclaim deed, although testamentary trustee transferred decedent's stock in bank to pay his indebtedness due bank for loaned money, since stock was already subject, with all the balance of decedent's estate, to payment of that indebtedness to bank, and to exclusion of judgment held by heirs for proceeds of real estate theretofore sold by trustee, and since all of such assets, including real estate quitclaimed, were subject to entire indebtedness due bank.

12. BANKS AND BANKING. That bank, without consideration, quit-claimed deceased bank stockholder's land to heirs, pursuant to compromise settlement, and took bank stock in satisfaction of bank's claim for loan held not to preclude superintendent of banks, after bank closed, from enforcing stockholder's double liability against land quitclaimed (Code 1930, sections 1643, 3803, 3815).

Facts disclosed that decedent, at time of death, was indebted to bank for a certain loan; that decedent held a number of shares in the bank; that decedent's heirs recovered a judgment against testamentary trustee for proceeds of certain land sold under a void devise; that heirs agreed to accept proceeds of certain other stock and releases or quitclaims of remaining land from bank and from trustee in settlement of claim under heirs' judgment; that bank then executed quitclaim deed, and trustee also executed quitclaim deed; and that bank in payment of indebtedness of estate to bank, purchased shares of stock held by estate.

Division B

APPEAL from chancery court of Alcorn county, HON. JAS. A. FINLEY, Chancellor.

Bill by J. S. Love, Superintendent of Banks, against F. F. Anderson, trustee under the will of J. E. Gift, deceased, J. M. Gift and others. From a decree in favor of complainant, second-named defendant and others appeal. Affirmed.

STATEMENT OF THE CASE.

Appellee, as superintendent of banks, filed his bill in the chancery court of Alcorn county against appellants, F. F. Anderson, trustee under the will of J. E. Gift, deceased, and the heirs at law of said J. E. Gift, to subject block 524 in the city of Corinth in said county, a part of the estate of said decedent, to the payment of his double liability on stock held by him in the Corinth Bank & Trust Company which had closed and gone into liquidation. The cause was tried on bill, answer and proofs resulting in a final decree granting the relief prayed for. From that decree appellants brought this appeal.

The deceased J. E. Gift, died in December, 1927. At the time of his death he owned four hundred thirty-three shares of stock in the Corinth Bank & Trust Company of the par value of forty-three thousand, three hundred dollars, he was the president of the bank and had been for some time. The bank closed on November 30, 1930. Appellee, as superintendent of banks, took charge of it under the law for liquidation. There was no conflict in the evidence as to the material facts.

For a further statement of the case we adopt the statement in appellants' brief which appears to be fairly accurate:

"Gift's only heirs were his first cousins, who are the defendants in this bill, and whose names and addresses are set out in the original bill. Mr. Gift made a will in which he made numerous bequests, none of which were to his blood relatives, except one to E. W. Parker, to whom he gave five thousand dollars. All of the remainder of his property he conveyed to trustees J. L. Holley and F. F. Anderson, and provided therein that they should pay his debts and should dispose of his property, real and personal, as they saw fit, and use the proceeds thereof for the benefit of the public schools of Alcorn county, with the exception of the schools in the towns of Corinth, Rienzi and Kossuth.

"J. L. Holley, one of the trustees, died shortly after the death of Mr. Gift, and the other trustee, F. F. Anderson, was proceeding to carry out the terms of the will, and had disposed of all of the real estate, except the homeplace, block 524 of Anderson's addition to the city of Corinth, which is in controversy here. The real estate which had been disposed of brought twenty-three thousand, two hundred fifty dollars.

"When the first cousins of the said J. E. Gift filed their bill in the chancery court of Alcorn county, attacking the will in so far as the real estate is concerned and asking that the same be declared void and contrary to our Statute of Mortmain, the court entered its decree, holding that the will was void in so far as the real estate was concerned, and declaring that the same descended to the Gift heirs under the laws of descent and distribution, and awarded the Gift heirs, the defendants herein, a decree against F. F. Anderson, as trustee of the Gift estate, for twenty-three thousand, two hundred fifty dollars, being the amount which he had collected for the real estate of which he had made disposition. That case was appealed to this court by F. F. Anderson, trustee, and the cause was affirmed (see Anderson v. Gift et al., 156 Miss. 736, 126 So. 656), and mandate of this court, which appears in the transcript, was sent down. The total amount of the judgment, or decree, against the Gift estate, including interest and damages, was above twenty-five thousand dollars.

"The Gift estate owned four hundred thirty-three shares of stock of the Corinth Bank & Trust Company, the value of which was then considered to be largely above par, and also owned ten thousand dollars of the stock of the Martin Grocery Company which was of the value of twelve thousand, five hundred dollars. The mandate was filed in the court below in March, 1930, prior to the closing of the bank the following November; and the Gift heirs, in order to collect their judgment, were preparing to levy upon the stock of the Corinth Bank & Trust Company and of the Martin Grocery Company and sell the same. Mr. F. F. Anderson, who was then president of the Corinth Bank & Trust Company and also trustee of the Gift estate, was very anxious that this stock should not be levied upon and sold, as was Mr. W. D. Conn, who was the attorney both for the Corinth Bank & Trust Company and the Gift estate. As the Gift estate owed the Corinth Bank & Trust Company some forty thousand dollars, the bank threatened, if these stocks were levied upon under the judgment in favor of the Gift heirs, to file a bill to sell all of the stocks to pay the debt of the Corinth Bank & Trust Company as well as this judgment. Mr. W. D. Conn, as attorney both for the Gift estate and the Corinth Bank & Trust Company, then approached the attorney for the Gift heirs, who owned this judgment, in an endeavor to get the matter settled without any further litigation so that the stocks of the Corinth Bank & Trust Company and the...