Pomeroy Lessee v. the State Bank of Indiana

• Citation: 1 Wall. 23,17 L.Ed. 500,68 U.S. 23
• Parties: POMEROY'S LESSEE v. THE STATE BANK OF INDIANA
• Decision Date: 01 December 1863
• Court: United States Supreme Court

68 U.S. 23

17 L.Ed. 500

1 Wall. 23

POMEROY'S LESSEE v. THE STATE BANK OF INDIANA.

December Term, 1863

A STATUTE of Indiana passed in 1834, enacted as follows: 'That there shall be and is hereby created and established a State Bank, to be known and styled the 'State Bank of Indians,' and shall continue as such until the first day of January, eighteen hundred and fifty-nine.' The charter further provided, that all banking powers should cease after the first day of January, 1857, 'except those incidental and necessary to collect and close up its business.'

In 1849, the bank being in possession of certain real estate, was sued in ejectment, and the suit, in December, 1862, being still pending on writ of error, in this court, which writ had been allowed in December, 1861, H. W. Chase, Esquire, signing himself Attorney for the State Bank of Indiana, in the Circuit Court for the District of Indiana, asked for the abatement of the writ upon the following suggestion, to wit: 'That since the trial of the above entitled cause in the Circuit Court for the District of Indiana, and before the prosecution of the writ of error in this behalf—to wit, on the first day of January, A.D. 1859,—the said State Bank of Indiana, named as defendant in error in said cause, being a corporation created and organized in the State of Indiana by the authority of an Act of the Legislature thereof, was dissolved and ceased to exist as such corporation, by reason of the expiration of the charter granted to said State Bank of Indiana.'

In support of this motion, he argued: The dissolution of the bank by expiration of its charter leaves no defendant; and the writ must abate. Angell and Ames¹ state it as text law that 'upon the dissolution of a corporation in any mode,' 'all suits pending for or against it, abate.' They cite, in support of this statement, various cases² which sustain the position. Lindell v. Benton,³ referred to in the note by them, as announcing a contrary doctrine, merely decides that the dissolution of a corporation after an attachment against it has been sued out, and its debtor garnished, will not operate to deprive the attachment plaintiff of a vested right in the money in the hands of the garnishee to satisfy his debt. In this case the bank itself expires in 1859. Banking powers may exist indefinitely for the purpose of closing up business. But the capacity to defend a suit is not a banking power. The expression has reference to the renewal of notes, &c., the payment of outstanding bank bills and the like.

The writ of error here is an original writ, issuing, in effect, out of this court, to bring up the record of a cause that alleged errors may be examined, and the judgment affirmed or reversed as the law may require.⁴ The parties in the inferior court, or their heirs or...