Hill v. Miles

• Decision Date: 15 July 1907
• Citation: 104 S.W. 198,83 Ark. 486
• Parties: HILL v. MILES
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

104 S.W. 198

83 Ark. 486

HILL v. MILES

Supreme Court of Arkansas

July 15, 1907

Appeal from Union Chancery Court; R. L. Floyd, Special Chancellor affirmed.

Judgment affirmed.

Gaughan & Sifford and Bunn & Patterson, for appellant.

The funds deposited were trust funds and a special deposit. 5 Ark. 267; 36 F. 239; 137 U.S. 411; 52 F. 59; 104 U.S. 54, 77; 137 Id. 411; 133 Id. 696.

Moore Smith & Moore, for appellee.

1. The deposit was not a special deposit, but a general deposit, and appellant was not entitled to a preference. 3 Am. & Eng. Enc of Law, 823-4; 5 Ark. 297; 88 Wis. 367; 52 F. 59.

2. But, if a special deposit, appellant has no preference over general creditors. 52 F. 59; 137 U.S. 411; 104 Id. 54; 3 Maule & S. 575; 58 N.W. 383; 2 Pom. Eq. Jur. §§, 1051, 1058; 13 Ch. Div. 696; 151 Mass. 109. To entitle a trust creditor to preference, the trust funds or the proceeds thereof must be capable of being traced to the assets in the hands of the receiver. In this case there were no funds in the bank when it closed. Authorities supra.

OPINION

RIDDICK, J.

This is a proceeding in equity in the nature of an intervening petition by Warren J. Hill, treasurer of Union County, against W. J. Miles, receiver of the Bank of El Dorado, to recover certain funds belonging to the county which had been deposited by Hill in the bank before its failure, and to obtain possession of certain school warrants held by the receiver. The evidence shows that the predecessor of Hill in the office of county treasurer had kept the county funds in the Bank of El Dorado, and that when Hill took possession he received the funds in the bank and continued to keep the funds there. Nothing was said between Hill and the cashier of the bank as to how the funds should be kept, whether as a special deposit or not. The officers of the bank knew that Hill was treasurer of the county, and that the funds were public funds. But the account was carried on the books of the bank in the name of W. J. Hill, and no distinction was made between his private funds and the public funds in his hands as county treasurer. The account was carried in this way for several years up to July, 1903; the last deposit being made in that month. The bank failed on the 24th day of August following. In a suit in equity brought against the bank by Mrs. M. C. Wade a receiver was appointed. During the progress of the suit Hill filed a petition of intervention, alleging that at the time the bank closed its doors the bank was due him about $ 22,000 for public money, which he alleged was a trust fund and special deposit, and he asked that the court order the receiver to pay the same out of the funds of the bank in his hands.

Later Hill filed a second intervening petition, in which he alleged that the receiver had in his hands a number of warrants drawn by trustees of various school districts of the county, of the face value of $ 2930.55, which had been paid for by the receiver out of the public funds in his hands, and the petition asked that the receiver be required to turn over these warrants to him so that he might use them in his settlements with the districts that had issued them.

Upon the final hearing it was shown that there were no funds in the bank at the time it closed its doors, and Hill did not further prosecute his first petition to be paid the money deposited by him. And the court held that he was not entitled to recover on the second petition, and dismissed the same. From this judgment Hill appealed.

But the admission that the bank had no funds on hand at the time of its failure disposes of the second as well as the first intervening petition. Even conceding that the funds deposited by the treasurer could be treated as a special deposit or trust funds which the bank had no right to mingle with its general assets, still it is not shown that any of these funds came into the hands of the receiver or were used by him to pay for the school warrants purchased by him after the bank's failure. It seems that he bought these warrants without any order of the court; and if the warrants were purchased with the general funds in his hands they must take the place of the general funds. There is no proof whatever that any of the county funds were used to purchase them. We considered a...