Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. Elliott, 3924.
Decision Date | 12 November 1935 |
Docket Number | No. 3924.,3924. |
Citation | 80 F.2d 158 |
Parties | STANDARD OIL CO. OF NEW JERSEY v. ELLIOTT et al. KRUPNICK v. PEOPLES STATE BANK OF SOUTH CAROLINA et al. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
George L. Buist, of Charleston, S. C. (Buist & Buist, of Charleston, S. C., on the brief), for appellant.
E. W. Mullins, of Columbia, S. C. (Nelson, Mullins & Grier, of Columbia, S. C., on the brief), for appellees.
Before PARKER, NORTHCOTT, and SOPER, Circuit Judges.
On January 2, 1932, the Peoples State Bank of South Carolina was closed by resolution of its board of directors, and shortly thereafter receivers were placed in charge of its affairs. These receivers, on June 24, 1932, instituted suit in the court below to recover of the Standard Oil Company a balance of $805.40 on account of rent. On August 4, 1932, the oil company filed an answer admitting liability for the rent claimed but setting up five different counterclaims and asking affirmative relief against the receivers. The third and fourth counterclaims were allowed as preferential claims against the funds in the hands of the receivers and are not involved in this appeal. Error is assigned to the action of the court with respect to the other three counterclaims as follows: (1) In not permitting the oil company to set off against liability for rent the indebtedness due it by the bank at the time of its closing; (2) in not holding that the cash assets which came into the hands of the receivers were impressed with a trust in favor of the oil company to the amount of funds deposited with the bank for transmission, amounting to $9,595.83; and (3) in not holding that these cash assets were impressed with a trust in favor of the oil company to the amount of a certified check for $250 drawn on the Peoples National Bank, the payment of which had been assumed by the failed bank. As entirely different legal questions are involved in these several contentions, we shall discuss them separately.
The Rent Set-Off Claim.
At the time the bank closed, the oil company was occupying certain premises under a written lease from the bank, which did not expire until the October following. This lease provided for an annual rental payable monthly, the monthly installments of which had been paid up to the time of the bank's closing. No question arises with respect to these installments which had been paid, but the oil company claims the right to set off the monthly installments subsequently accruing against the indebtedness of the bank; and the action of the court below in denying this set-off constitutes the company's first ground of complaint on appeal.
We think that the court's action with respect to this was clearly correct. The liability of the oil company for the monthly rental provided in its contract arose out of the right to use and enjoy the property leased, and created no debt until the time for payment had arrived. Watson v. Merrill (C.C.A.8) 136 F. 359, 361, 362, 69 L.R.A. 719; In re Roth & Appel (C.C.A.2d) 181 F. 667, 669, 31 L.R.A.(N.S.) 270. As said by Judge Noyes, speaking for the Circuit Court of Appeals of the Second Circuit in the case last cited:
The installments of rent falling due subsequent to the appointment of the receivers were payable to them, therefore, not as debts due the bank, but as the income of property administered by them as officers of the court for the benefit of the bank's creditors. Not only were the installments of rent not owing at the time the receivers were appointed, but there was lacking, also, the element of mutuality essential to set-off. See Hood v. Brownlee (C.C.A.4th) 62 F.(2d) 675, 676. The claim of the oil company arose out of the debt of the bank, and the only liability of the receivers with respect thereto was to apply on it a pro rata portion of the bank's assets under order of court. The liability of the oil company for the subsequently accruing installments of rent was to the receivers, not as representatives of the bank, but as officers of the court administering the property of the bank for the benefit of its creditors. The exact question was before the Supreme Court of South Carolina in the recent case of Zimmerman v. Home Insurance Co., 175 S.C. 18, 177 S.E. 895; and we thoroughly approve the reasoning as well as the conclusion of Judge Townsend, adopted by that court, in holding that the set-off should not be allowed. He said:
. ...
To continue reading
Request your trial-
Leonard v. Gage
...is a ground of denial of relief." Appellees rely upon our decisions in Poole v. Elliott, 4 Cir., 76 F.2d 772, 774, and Standard Oil Co. v. Elliott, 4 Cir., 80 F.2d 158; but the distinction is obvious. Those were cases seeking to establish trusts with respect to deposits made when the bank w......
-
Thomas v. Gulfway Shopping Center, Inc., Civ. A. No. 66-C-118.
...to pay rent in the future; however, such a covenant cannot be considered to be an antecedent debt. Cf., Standard Oil of New Jersey v. Elliott, 80 F.2d 158, 159 (4th Cir. 1935); In re Roth & Appel, 181 F. 667, 669 (2d Cir. By reason of the judicially-created exception from § 60 for the preba......
-
In re MarkAir, Inc.
...§§ 101(5, 12). GPA cites cases, such as In re Roth & Appel, O.L. Schwencke Land & Investment Co. v. Forster, Ryan's Estate, and Standard Oil of New Jersey, to support the proposition that current rent for current possession is not on account of antecedent debt.87 Most of these cases relate ......
-
Downriver Community Federal Credit Union v. Penn Square Bank Through Federal Deposit Ins. Corp.
...Steel Corp. v. Berger, 105 F.2d 485, 487 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 308 U.S. 603, 60 S.Ct. 140, 84 L.Ed. 504 (1939); Standard Oil Co. v. Elliott, 80 F.2d 158, 161 (4th Cir.1935); Federal Reserve Bank v. Omaha Nat'l Bank, 45 F.2d 511, 519 (8th Cir.1930), cert. denied, 282 U.S. 902, 51 S.Ct. 21......