In Re Canal Bank & Trust Co.
In Re Canal Bank & Trust Co.
Opinion of the Court
The facts necessary to a decision of the question presented are not disputed. On March 1, 1933, and for some years prior thereto, the Canal Bank Trust Company had in its possession certain securities belonging to intervener in a sum in excess of $100,000. Under an agreement between intervener and the bank, the interest coupons were detached from the securities after they became due and deposited to the credit of intervener in the checking account which it had in the bank. On February 24, 1933, there were a number of coupons aggregating $1,537.75 detached from the bonds belonging to intervener preparatory to their collection on their due date, March 1st of that year. On March 1st, the intervener's account was credited with the face value of the coupons, though the bank did not actually receive the credit for the coupons, which was effected through the clearing house, until the following day, March 2, 1933. The last day on which the bank was open for the unrestricted conduct of business was March 1, 1933. Thereafter, for a short while, depositors were permitted to withdraw a limited amount of their deposits and this intervener received $538.21, thus *Page 641
reducing its claim to $999.54, the amount claimed herein. For details concerning the banking situation as affecting this and other banks, see In re Canal Bank Trust Co. In Liquidation (Intervention of E. C. Palmer Co.),
The contention of the intervener is that, since the proceeds of the coupons were not received by the bank until March 2, at which time it was doing business on a restricted basis, its relation to intervener on March 1, the date of the deposit, was that of principal and agent and not that of debtor and creditor, citing In re Canal Bank Trust Co. In Liquidation (Intervention of Thos. J. Ferguson),
There is no question here as to the authority of the bank to deposit the coupons to the credit of the intervener on March 1, 1933, when it was operating without restriction and on a normal basis. In the Ferguson Case, the amount of the coupons was not credited to the Ferguson account until March 21, long after the bank had ceased to function without restriction. In our opinion, the case is squarely within the holding in Re Canal Bank Trust Co., In Liquidation (John F. Clark Co., Intervenor), supra, in which the Supreme Court held that a bank which immediately credits a depositor's checking account with out-of-town items becomes the owner of the items so deposited, and pro tanto, the debtor of the depositor, notwithstanding a stipulation to the contrary on the deposit slip accompanying the deposit; the deposit slip being merely a receipt for the items deposited and not the evidence of a contract between the bank and its depositor. It inevitably results from the finding in the Clark Case that on March 1, 1933, when the coupons, which had been previously detached from the intervener's bonds, were deposited to its account, the relation of debtor and creditor existed and not that of principal and agent. The provisions of Act No.
For the reasons assigned, the judgment appealed from is correct, and it is, therefore, affirmed.
Affirmed.
Addendum
In our opinion in this cause, handed down on yesterday, May 13, 1935, we inadvertently and erroneously stated that the intervention had been dismissed by the court a qua. Consequently, the result of our decree affirming the judgment of the lower court was at variance *Page 642 with our opinion which clearly indicated an intention to dismiss the intervention.
It is therefore ordered that a rehearing be granted ex proprio motu and fixed for argument or submission on Friday, the 17th Day of May, 1935, at 10:30 a. m., without prejudice to the rights of either party to apply for a rehearing as their interests may suggest when the final decree of the court is rendered.
Addendum
We granted a rehearing in this case because we doubted our right to correct the mistake which we made in our decree affirming, without qualification, the judgment of the lower court, when, as our opinion clearly indicated, our intention was to reverse it in the respect that it recognized intervener as a privileged creditor.
For the reasons assigned, our former decree is recalled, and it is now ordered, adjudged, and decreed that there be judgment in favor of Grand Consistory of Louisiana, Intervener, and against J.S. Brook, state bank commissioner, through Harry G. Thompson, special agent in charge of Canal Bank Trust Company, in liquidation, in the full sum of $999.54, recognizing Intervener as an ordinary creditor to be paid in due course of the administration of the liquidation proceedings; intervener to pay the costs of this appeal.
The right is reserved to intervener to apply for a rehearing.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.