Amberg Schwab & Co. v. Commercial State Bank
Amberg Schwab & Co. v. Commercial State Bank
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
This is an action to have a claim against a failed bank, which was allowed as a common claim, adjudged to be a trust fund and allowed as a preferred claim. The case comes to us on appeal by defendants from an order overruling their demurrer to an amended petition.
The case was here before (137 Kan. 902, 22 P. 2d 442) on an appeal from a similar order. There the petition, briefly stated, alleged: Yeamans & Co. was a depositor in the bank, having a credit in its account of an amount in excess of a check given to plaintiff in New York; plaintiff sent the check directly to the bank for collection and return; after some delay the bank sent to plaintiff its draft, drawn on its Kansas City correspondent, for the amount of the check. Before the draft was paid the bank failed and passed into the hands of the defendant receiver. In our former opinion it was held these facts show the relation which existed between the parties was that of debtor and creditor; not that of trustee and cestui que trust; and furthermore, there were no allegations of fact showing that any fund, claimed by plaintiff to be a trust fund arising from the transaction, ever passed into the hands of the receiver. This court, therefore, directed the trial court to sustain the demurrer to the petition. This was done. Thereafter plaintiff filed an amended petition, in which the facts were alleged as in the former
We might well stop here, for if no trust fund existed no preferred claim could be allowed. But the petition was amended in another respect, regarded by appellee to be important. It is alleged the draft drawn by the bank on its Kansas City correspondent would have been paid if the bank had not failed; that the bank’s money in its Kansas City correspondent passed to the receiver. It is argued this is a tracing of the trust fund into the hands of the receiver. This argument fails for two reasons: (1) A trust fund must exist before it can be traced anywhere, and (2) there is no allegation that any deposits made by Yeamans & Co. in the bank were ever placed by it with its Kansas City correspondent.
All the authorities now cited were cited and considered when the case was here before. No facts are alleged in the amended petition which were not previously considered.
The amended petition fails to state a cause of action. The judgment of the court below is reversed with directions to sustain the demurrer thereto.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Amberg Schwab & Company v. The Commercial State Bank of Rosedale, and Charles W. Johnson, Receiver
- Status
- Published