Jourdan v. Bennett
Jourdan v. Bennett
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
The appellant, complainant in the court below, filed a petition in the chancery court praying that court to decree that he held a preference claim against the receiver of the Tishomingo Banking Company for three thousand, seven hundred dollars, and that the receiver pay him this amount out of funds in his hands. Complainant claimed that by reason of the facts herein below stated he made a special deposit in this bank of
The claim of the appellant is based upon the following facts: Tie was a general depositor in the defunct bank and prior to December 19, 1911, he had a credit in said bank of over two thousand, five hundred dollars. About this time he decided to go to St. Louis to purchase live stock, and went to the bank and drew a cheek for two thousand, five hundred dollars, intending to carry this amount of money with him to St. Louis. He and the
The strongest inference favorable to the appellant from the record is that he was a general depositor in the Iuka Bank; that he wanted to go to St. Louis to buy live stock, and at first intended to take the money with him; that, in conference with the president of the bank, he was dissuaded from doing so because he was assured that the bank could arrange for him to get this amount of money in St. Louis without having to pay any exchange for it. It was not the intention of either the appellant or the bank that any particular two thousand, five hundred dollars should be set apart for appellant and sent to the St. Louis bank to be delivered to him. The transaction was merely one whereby appellant wanted to get a credit in St. Louis of two thousand, five hundred dollars. The bank first issued to him cashier’s checks for two thousand, five hundred dollars. • This did not change in any respect the relationship of debtor and creditor. Not being satisfied with this arrangement, the appellant, expressly desiring to avoid paying exchange, then accepted from the president of the bank first a bill of exchange for one thousand, two hundred dollars, and a few days thereafter another for two thousand, five hundred dollars. These exchanges were not drawn on any particular fund in the hands of the St. Louis bank, but were generally drawn on this bank. This transaction constituted no legal or equitable assignment of this fund
Counsel for appellant contend that the above facts constituted this a special deposit under the authority of Sawyers v. Conner, 114 Miss. 363, 75 So. 131, L. R. A. 1918A, 61, Ann. Cas. 1918B, 388. The court in the Conner Case, however, held that the hank did not take title to the proceeds of the draft and that it was never intended by the hank or the depositor that the fund should be commingled with the general assets of the hank. In this case, however, the entire transaction shows that no special fund was set apart for the appellant to he sent to St.Louis and there delivered to him, hut that the relation of debtor and creditor existed, and that appellant accepted from his dehter two bills of exchange for which he gave the hank his check. In the case of a special deposit, the title to the property never changes; the depositor is a bailor and not a creditor of the hank, 7 C. J. p. 630; 3 R. C. L. p. 522, section. 150. In the case of Mississippi Central Railroad Co. v. Conner, 114 Miss. 63, 75 So. 57, this court said that: “The distinctive feature, the sine qua non, of a special deposit, is that the identicál money 'deposited is to he kept apart from the general funds of the bank, to he returned to the depositor or paid to some other person, designated when the money is deposited.”
The contention of the appellant that the transactions between him and the bank resulted in a trust in his favor is adjudicated adversely to him in the case of Banking Co. v. Paine, 67 Miss. 678, 7 So. 462. That case is similar in its legal aspects to the case at bar. The case of Billingsley v. Pollock, Receiver, 69 Miss. 759, 13 So. 828, 30 Am. Rep. 585, is also directly in point.
The chancellor was correct in holding that the county’s claim was superior to that of appellant, but erred in holding that appellant had a preference claim. Appellant only occupies the position of a general creditor of the bank. - . • -
Affirmed.
-Reversed.
Reference
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- Syllabus
- 1. Banks And Banking. Issuance of cashier’s cheeks. Effect. Where a general depositor of a bank obtained cashier’s checks from the bank to the amount of his deposits in the bank, this did not change the relation of debtor and creditor and make the transaction a special deposit. 2. Assignment. Bill of exchange. Effect of. Where a bank gave a depositor bills of exchange on a bank in another city not drawn on any particular fund in the hands, of the drawee, bank, but drawn generally on such bank such transaction constituted no legal or equitable assignment of this fund to the depositor. 3. Banks And Banking. Special deposits. Title to. In the case of special deposit, the title to the property never changes; the depositor is a bailor and not a creditor of the bank. 4. Banks And Banking. Receivership. Preference claim. Bounty funds. Under Code 1906, section 3485 (Hemingway’s Code, section 2823) a county claim for deposits in a bank at the time of the bank’s failure is superior to that of a depositor to whom the bank had issued bills of exchange on a bank in another city. In such case the depositor had no preference claim.