Dye v. Bank of Plankinton
Dye v. Bank of Plankinton
Opinion of the Court
This appeal is from an order dissolving an attachment, the grounds of which are (1) that the defendant has disposed of his property with intent to defraud its creditors; and (2) that it has secreted its property, in part, with intent to defraud its creditors. Assuming that the acts of the cashier of the defendant bank were the acts of the corporation, and assuming that one creditor of an insolvent corporation may obtain a preference over its other creditors by first attaching its property, we will proceed 'to consider whether the alleged grounds of the attachment are established by a fair preponderance of the evidence. Upon the hearing of the motion to dis
It appears that the defendant was a corporation engaged in the banking business in Plankinton, in this state, from 1885 to January 9, 1900, when its doors were closed by direction of Fred L. Stevens, who was its cashier from the time it began until it ceased to do business, and who during the last five years of that period .was allowed to have exclusive control and management of its affairs; that Stevens left Plankinton on Saturday January 6th, leaving the bank in charge of Miss Maud Howard, who had been employed therein for some time, who had on more than one occasion been left in sole charge, and who is shown to have been in all respects thoroughly competent and reliable; that Miss Howard conducted the business of the bank in the usual manner, with no knowledge or intimation of impending difficulties, during that day and the following Monday; that after banking hours on Monday, January 8th, she received a letter from Stevens directing her not to open the bank on the following day; that she complied with the direction, retaining the keys to the bank, and refusing admission to any one until she surrendered possession to the sheriff, being advised so to do by her attorney: and that prior to the closing of the bank no one whose affidavit was read had any suspicion that the institution was financially embarassed. The •
The order appealed from is affirmed.
Reference
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- Where affidavits to support an attachment against an insolvent bank on the ground that it had disposed of its property with intent to defraud its creditors, and had secreted its property with like intent, contained no showing as to the amount of its original capital and resources, nor how long it had been insolvent, and the only proof that any property had been transferred, other than in the usual course of business, was a statement in plaintiff’s affidavit which was disproved, and it appeared that the cashier who had charge of the bank when he abandoned it left all the bank’s assets in charge of a trustworthy person, who turned them over to the sheriff, the proof was insufficient to sustain the attachment.