Gregory v. Merchants' Nat. Bank

• Decision Date: 18 May 1898
• Citation: 171 Mass. 67,50 N.E. 520
• Parties: GREGORY v. MERCHANTS' NAT. BANK et al.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

171 Mass. 67

50 N.E. 520

GREGORY v. MERCHANTS' NAT. BANK et al.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk.

May 18, 1898

COUNSEL

F.A. Brooks and A.S. Hall, for appellant.

L.S Dabney, for appellees.

OPINION

KNOWLTON J.

This is a bill in equity to obtain from the defendant bank a sum of money received on deposit, amounting to $18,820, which was the proceeds of a promissory note to which the plaintiff contends that he was entitled. The note was claimed by other parties. A suit at law upon it was pending in the circuit court of the United States for the First circuit, and a suit in equity was pending in the same court to determine the rights of the respective claimants of it. There was also a submission to arbitration in pais, by the parties to the suit in equity, of the questions arising in that suit, and on award under the submission, the effect of which was in dispute. In this situation, it was agreed by the claimants of the note that it should be delivered to John G. Stetson, Esq., who was at that time the clerk of the circuit court of the United States for the First circuit, to be retained by him subject to the joint order of the counsel of the respective claimants. Afterwards an order was entered by the court in said suit in equity, requiring Mr. Stetson to file the note in the action at law above referred to, and directing the maker of the note, the defendant in that action, upon and after the entry of the judgment therein, as follows: "To pay into the registry of this court the amount of said judgment, *** and that said amount be held subject to the rights of the parties claiming said note, and to abide the decision of the court in this cause." Thereupon Mr Stetson filed the note in court in accordance with the order. Judgment was entered in the action at law upon the note for the sum of $18,879.96, and the defendant in the action paid into court that sum in satisfaction of the judgment. On the same day, Mr. Stetson, the clerk of the court, took the money, and deposited it with the Merchants' National Bank, and received from the bank a pass book in the usual form, which showed that the money was deposited by the circuit court, it being designated as "No. 2,435, Jones v. Swift," which were the number and name of the action at law. All these facts are set out in the bill. A demurrer to the bill was sustained, and the case comes before us on an appeal from the decree dismissing the bill.

By the Revised Statutes of the United States (section 995) it is provided that "all moneys paid into the court of the United States or received by the officers thereof in any case pending or adjudicated in such court shall be forthwith deposited with the treasurer, an assistant treasurer, or a designated depositary of the United States in the name and to the credit of such court," etc. Section 996 is as follows: "No money deposited as aforesaid shall be withdrawn except by order of a judge or judges of said courts, respectively, in term or in vacation, to be signed by such judge or judges, and to be entered and certified of record by the clerk, and every such order shall state the cause in or on account of which it is drawn." Section 5504 imposes a heavy penalty upon every clerk or other officer of a court of the United States who fails forthwith to deposit any money belonging in the registry of the court with the treasurer, an assistant treasurer, or a designated depositary of the United States in the name and to the credit of such court. While the bill does not expressly state that the defendant bank is a designated depositary of the United States, and that the...