Western Nat Bank of New York v. Armstrong
| Decision Date | 12 March 1894 |
| Docket Number | No. 251,251 |
| Citation | 152 U.S. 346,14 S.Ct. 572,38 L.Ed. 470 |
| Parties | WESTERN NAT. BANK OF NEW YORK v. ARMSTRONG |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
This was an action by the Western National Bank of New York against David Armstrong, as receiver of the Fidelity National Bank of Cincinnati, Ohio, to recover money alleged to have been loaned by the former bank to the latter. The bill was dismissed by the court below, and from its decree the complainant appeals.
In December, 1888, the Western National Bank of New York, organized under the laws of the United States, and having its place of business in the city of New York, filed a bill of complaint in the circuit court of the United States for the southern district of Ohio against David Armstrong, as receiver of the Fidelity National Bank of Cincinnati, Ohio. The bill alleged that the Fidelity National Bank was indebted to the complainant bank in the sum of $207,290, on account of a loan made on May 28, 1887, by the New York bank to the Ohio bank 'at the special instance and request of E. L. Harper, who was then the vice president and general manager of the said Fidelity National Bank, with full authority to make said loan on its behalf.' The bill further alleged that said loan was secured by collateral notes, signed by one A. P. Gahr, and indorsed by said E. L. Harper, and by the indorsement and delivery to the complainant by E. L. Harper of certificates for 1,600 shares of the capital stock of the said Fidelity National Bank; that said notes were, when they fell due, and still are, entirely worthless by reason of the insolvency of said Gahr and Harper; that said stock certificates did not do not represent stock of the Fidelity National Bank, but were wholly invalid and void, because they did not constitute a part of the original and authorized stock of said bank, but were a part of a proposed increase of the capital stock of said bank, on account of which E. L. Harper had paid into the bank upwards of $180,000, but which increase had never been voted for by the stockholders of said bank, nor had notice of said intended increase of said capital, with a certificate that the full amount of the same had been fully paid in, ever been sent to the comptroller of the currency of the United States, nor had the comptroller ever assented to such increase of capital, as required by law, but that, nevertheless, said Harper had procured from the president and cashier of said bank the certificates of stock so as aforesaid pledged with the complainant; that when said certificates were so issued to Harper the stock of the Fidelity National Bank had an established market value of $153 per share, and that the complainant bank relied on said certificates as one of the securities for said loan when it made the same; that said moneys, so paid in by Harper on account of proposed stock, were held by said Fidelity National Bank on special deposit, and in trust for said Harper until such increase of stock should be duly authorized. The relief prayed for was that David Armstrong, receiver of the Fidelity National Bank, which had become insolvent, should allow the claim for said loan, and pay, out of the assets in his hands, dividends, the same as to other creditors of said bank, and that the complainant bank should be subrogated to the rights of Harper on account of the moneys so paid in for stock proposed to be issued, and which the complainant alleged to constitute a preferred claim.
Armstrong, receiver, entered an appearance, and demurred to those portions of the bill in which were alleged the facts respecting the proposed issue of additional stock, and in which the complainant prayed to be subrogated to Harper's supposed rights in respect to the same. The alleged grounds of the demurrer were a want of necessary parties, in that the Fidelity National Bank and E. L. Harper were not made parties to said bill, and for multifariousness.
Subsequently, in November, 1889, the court below sustained the demurrer to so much of said bill as was recited therein,—being the said allegations seeking subrogations,—and gave leave to answer the remainder of said bill.
An answer was duly filed, denying that the Fidelity company was indebted to the complainant bank; that the complainant had, on May 28, 1887, or at any time, loaned the Fidelity National Bank the sum of $200,000, or any other sum; and alleging that the notes mentioned in the bill, made by A. P. Gahr and indorsed by E. L. Harper, were discounted by the complainant bank for said Harper, and that the proceeds of such discount were received by said Harper; that the said notes were at no time the property of the Fedelity National Bank, and that the Fidelity National Bank never had any interest in said transaction, and was in no way responsible therefor.
The cause was put at issue, evidence taken, and on April 8, 1890, a final decree was entered dismissing the bill at the cost of the complainant. The case comes to this court on appeal from said decree.
Edward Colston, Judson Harmon and George Hoadly, Jr., for appellant.
John W. Herron, for appellee.
Mr. Justice SHIRAS, after stating the facts in the foregoing language, delivered the opinion of the court.
Whether the transaction of May, 1887, was a discount by the Western National Bank of New York in favor of E. L. Harper of the four notes made by A. P. Gahr and indorsed by Harper, or was a loan by said bank to the Fidelity National Bank, is the question principally discussed in the briefs and oral arguments of the respective parties.
In disposing of the case we are not assisted by any findings or opinion by the court below, and we are left to conjecture the grounds upon which that court proceeded in dismissing the bill of complaint.
The theory that the case was that of a simple discount by the New York bank of four promissory notes, made by Gahr and indorsed by Harper, and secured by the assignment by Harper of certificates of 1,600 shares of the stock of the Fidelity National Bank, comports with the form of the notes themselves. Such a transaction would have been an ordinary one, and in the course of the usual business of such a bank. The letter of May 16, 1887, in which the proposition was made to the New York bank to make the loan, was signed by E. L. Harper in his own name, without any official designation. That the $200,000 were placed on the books of the New York bank to the credit of the Ohio bank was not inconsistent with this version of the case, because it appears that this was done at the request of Harper.
On the other hand, it is claimed that because the letter of May 16, 1887, was...
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