State ex rel. Sorensen v. State Bank
State ex rel. Sorensen v. State Bank
Opinion of the Court
This is a controversy between E. H. Luikart, receiver of the insolvent Verdigre State Bank of Verdigre, Nebraska, and Louis H. Pink, statutory liquidator of the National Surety Company, a dissolved insolvent insurance corporation formerly existing under a charter from the state of
In the district court for Knox county, Nebraska, E. H. Luikart, receiver of the Verdigre State Bank, recovered in his favor two judgments against the National Surety Company, one for $5,612.50, June 5, 1933, and the other for $5,950, May 24, 1934.
In a proceeding by the state of Nebraska in the district court for Douglas county to wind up the affairs of the insolvent State Bank of Omaha, there were adjudicated in favor of the National Surety Company, January 2, 1935, claims for unpaid deposits aggregating $2,577.23, payable to the latter from bank assets on a par with all other valid general unsecured deposits, and the decree of the district court directed E. H. Luikart, receiver of the State Bank of Omaha, to pay the National Surety Company the dividends due and to become due on its claims, the amount of the unpaid declared dividends being $1,932.91.
Later, January 8, 1935, E. H. Luikart, receiver of the Verdigre State Bank, filed in the district court for Douglas county in the proceeding to wind up the affairs of the State Bank of Omaha an application in the form of a bill of equity, praying for the garnishment of the dividends payable to the National Surety Company on its deposits and for the application thereof to partial payment of the judgments in favor of E. H. Luikart, receiver of the Verdigre State Bank.
The superintendent of insurance of the state of New York intervened in the district court for Douglas county, Nebraska, resisted garnishment of the dividends which Luikart, receiver of the State Bank of Omaha, had been ordered to pay to the National Surety Company, pleaded that, by virtue of article XI, ch. 191 of the laws of the state of New York (Laws 1932) and a decree of the supreme court of the state of New York for the first judicial district, dissolving the National Surety Company,
Luikart, receiver of both Nebraska banks named, admitted the existence of the New York statute and the decree of the supreme court of New York, but nevertheless took the position that it is the public policy of Nebraska to retain therein for the benefit of Nebraska creditors funds of insolvent foreign corporations, when attached in Nebraska by order of Nebraska courts.
The pleadings and the evidence show that the title to the dividends in controversy vested in the New York liquidator June 1, 1934, and that the application for garnishment was not made until January 8, 1935.
The district court for Douglas county, Nebraska, found that title to the dividends on the deposits vested in the New York liquidator, June 1, 1934, by virtue of the insurance laws of New York, on the making of the judicial order for liquidation, and were not subject to garnishment in Nebraska, denied the application therefor and ordered Luikart, receiver of the State Bank of Omaha, to pay the liquidator $1,932.91.
Luikart, receiver of both Nebraska state banks, appealed from the judgment of the district court for Douglas county to the supreme court.
The appeal presents the question: Does the public policy of Nebraska permit a judgment creditor to seize by process of garnishment dividends on deposits of an insolvent New York insurance company in an insolvent Nebraska state bank after title thereto had vested in the liquidator of the insurance company by virtue of the insurance laws of New York and the judgment of a court of that state, in disregard of his prior demand for the fund for the benefit of all creditors and a previous order of a Nebraska court to turn it over to him? This question was not involved in the liti
The judgment from which the appeal was taken is
Affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- State, ex rel. C. A. Sorensen, Attorney General v. State Bank of Omaha, E. H. Luikart, Receiver, appellant E. H. Luikart, Receiver of Verdigre State Bank v. National Surety Company
- Status
- Published