Koehler v. Joplin State Bank

• Decision Date: 20 February 1934
• Docket Number: No. 5305.,5305.
• Parties: KOEHLER v. JOPLIN STATE BANK et al.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

68 S.W.2d 728

KOEHLER v. JOPLIN STATE BANK et al.

No. 5305.

Springfield Court of Appeals. Missouri.

February 20, 1934.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Jasper County; Grant Emmerson, Judge.

"Not to be published in State Reports."

Proceeding by Sadie Koehler against the Joplin State Bank and D. R. Harrison, Commissioner of Finance. From the judgment, D. R. Harrison, Commissioner of Finance, appeals.

Affirmed.

Foulke & Foulke, of Joplin, for appellant.

SMITH, Judge.

This is a claim for preference. The claim was filed in time with the liquidating officer of the bank and certified to the circuit court for its determination as to whether the claim should be allowed as a preferred claim or as an ordinary claim. The trial court allowed the claim as a preferred claim, and the liquidating officer appealed to this court.

The case is before us on only one assignment of error; namely, that under the law and the evidence the finding of the court should have been that of allowing the claim as a common claim and denying its preference.

The facts are very simple. Sadie Koehler testified that she deposited $400 in the Joplin State Bank on February 4, 1927, in a general checking account, and had drawn no checks against the same between that date and January 14, 1932, and that on January 14, 1932, she wrote a check for the $400, and presented it for payment at the bank, and payment thereof was refused. The bank was closed a couple of days thereafter.

The plaintiff testified that she had had some conversation with John Jones, the cashier of the bank, about buying some government bonds, and that she wanted $500 worth of bonds, provided she could get up another hundred dollars. She said that the cashier in the first conversation said he would charge her $1.50 upon the hundred dollars worth for buying the bonds; that at a later date he told her that, since she had been such a good customer, he would not charge her anything for buying the bonds, and for her to get up another hundred dollars and bring it in and he would get the bonds for her. She at that time talked about drawing her money out, and Jones persuaded her to leave it there. This conversation occurred on December 21, 1931. On January 11, 1932, she went to the bank and asked Jones if he had her bonds, and that he told her that he did not because she had not brought in the extra hundred dollars, and that he could not buy them until she brought it in, and that she left the bank and did not tell him whether she would bring in the hundred dollars or not. She said she went back in the bank on the 14th of January and asked Miss Fama Roper, who was teller and book-keeper in the bank, if Mr. Jones had bought any bonds for her, and that she told her "No," and that she said to Miss Roper, "I knew he didn't because he said he wouldn't buy them unless I brought in another hundred."

She said she asked Miss Roper for a pencil to sign a check she had written out for the amount of her deposit made payable to cash, that she signed the check for $400, and handed it to Miss Roper, who looked at it, and that Miss Roper told her she could not give her the money on the check until she saw Mr. Jones. She said then to Miss Roper, "I want my money, and this is no way to run a bank. If you won't give me my money, give me back my check."

She said Miss Roper went for Mr. Jones, and that Jones told her then that he had bought $500 worth of bonds for her and that they would be there in ten days. She said he had no bonds of any kind there for her, and that she did not get her money when she presented her check.

John W. Jones, the cashier, testified that Miss Koehler's story was about...