Beeler v. Emmett State Bank
Beeler v. Emmett State Bank
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
This action was brought by G. H. Beeler against the Emmett State Bank and the receiver of that bank to have it adjudged that a certain fund in the hands of the receiver was a trust fund to which plaintiff was entitled. Each of the defendants filed a demurrer to plaintiff’s petition, alleging that no cause of action was stated in the petition. The court sustained the demurrers and plaintiff appeals.
The following is a summary of the averments in the petition; The Emmett State Bank was a corporation engaged in the banking business, and on May 17, 1926, it became insolvent and a receiver therefor was appointed. Prior to that time and on April 23, 1920, several persons executed a note for $8,000 payable one year after date at the Emmett State Bank, on which interest was paid from time to time up to October 23, 1925. On January 23, 1926, the bank commissioner finding the funds of the bank impaired made an order requiring an assessment upon the stockholders of 100 per cent, and requiring that the moneys paid in on the assessment should be held a fund apart from all other moneys until the assessments had been paid. On February 17, 1926, a meeting was held by the stockholders of the bank, at which a resolution was passed levying the assessment as directed and providing that it should be paid on or
Within the decisions recently made it must be held that the money derived from the assessment made cannot be regarded as a trust fund, which the plaintiff may follow and claim. The capital of the bank was found to be impaired, and the bank commissioner in compliance with the statute notified the bank to make the impairment good within the time specified. (R. S. 9-145.) In response to the notice, the stockholders adopted a resolution levying an assessment to make good the impairment and enable the bank to continue as a going concern. The assessment was a stock liability instead of a personal obligation. The stockholder had the option to pay the assessment or to suffer his stock to be sold as the statute provides. (Citizens Bank v. Needham, 120 Kan. 523, 244 Pac. 7.) The money paid in under the assessment became capital the same as the other capital of the bank, which was provided for the benefit of all depositors and creditors. When paid in as the law provides, no creditor had or could have a preferred right to any of it. It was decided in the late case of Bernard v. Emmett State Bank, 124 Kan. 233, 257 Pac. 949, that payment by a stockholder of an assessment made to meet impairment of the capital stock of the Emmett State Bank under the same resolution as is pleaded by plaintiff, “was not a special deposit or trust fund — it just went to the bank to take up bad paper.” (p. 236. See, also, Mulligan v. Emmett State Bank, 124 Kan. 699, 261 Pac. 567.)
Following these decisions it must be held that the demurrer of the defendants was properly sustained.
The judgment is affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- G. H. Beeler v. The Emmett State Bank
- Status
- Published