213 N.W. 245 | Iowa | 1927
The Security Savings Bank of Perry, Iowa, was closed January 24, 1925, and the plaintiff in due course was appointed receiver. An order was made, fixing the time for filing claims. After the expiration of the time so fixed, this petition 1. TRUSTS: of intervention was filed. It was stipulated at express the trial, however, that no dividend had, up to trusts. that time, been paid to any depositor. The claimant Retta Mills is the widow, and the other claimants are the sons, of J.R. Mills, deceased. On October 18, 1920, M.M. Heptonstall was president of the defendant bank. On that date he prepared for claimants, *548 and they executed, a written agreement, in which the claimants only were named as parties, providing, among other things:
"It is further understood and agreed that second parties shall deposit with the Security Savings Bank, Perry, Iowa, for investment by said bank to the best advantage in safe real estate mortgages, the sum of $6,000, the income from which shall be turned over to first party semiannually as collected. Said income to continue so long as first party shall remain the widow of our father J.R. Mills. Upon the remarriage or death of first party, said income shall cease and the sum of $6,000 shall revert to second parties."
Pursuant to this agreement, two of the sons, on November 30, 1920, gave to the bank their promissory note for $6,000. This note became a part of the bills receivable of the bank, and in the course of a few months was fully paid to the bank. Heptonstall, at the time the written agreement was prepared, verbally promised for the bank to safely invest the fund. When the note was given, the amount of it, $6,000, was placed to the credit of M.M. Heptonstall, trustee, on the books of the bank, and was so carried until after Heptonstall's connection with the bank was severed, in 1923, when the account was changed to the name of C.A. Graves, trustee. Graves was then vice president of the bank. Shortly after the agreement of October 18, 1920, was made, Heptonstall announced that he would invest the $6,000 in a mortgage on the Stevenson block. Heptonstall took Stevenson's note for $6,000, and a mortgage on the block to secure it, and informed claimants that he had invested their money in that property. The Stevenson note, however, was rediscounted by the bank, and, after the appointment of receiver, was paid to the receiver, and the proceeds were by the receiver paid to the then holder of the Stevenson note. At the time of the closing, the bank had over $300,000 of bills receivable, of which at least $100,000 has been collected. The Security Savings Bank paid the widow semiannually interest on the $6,000. After Heptonstall's retirement, the bank obtained another security for $300 on account of the trust fund. The $300 was charged against the trust fund, reducing the book credit to $5,700, for which amount the preference was allowed.
I. It is argued that Heptonstall was acting in his individual, and not his official, capacity in making the agreement, *549 and that he individually, and not the bank, was 2. BANKS AND the trustee. The evidence clearly shows that he BANKING: professed to be, and was accepted and understood liability of as, acting for the bank, and that the bank was bank. the trustee.
II. The case is not one in which it is sought to impress upon the assets of the bank an implied trust when no trust relationship was ever intended. The bank received the $6,000 rightfully. It is shown without contradiction that the $6,000 was deposited and received with the intention, both 3. BANKS AND on the part of the depositor and of the officers BANKING: of the bank, of making it a fund to be held in trusts: trust and invested by the bank on real estate trust security. The matter came to the knowledge of treated as the bank examiner soon after Heptonstall left, general and it was at the examiner's instance that the deposit: account was changed to the name of Graves. The effect. case is not one of a trust of specific property, which is to be retained, kept separate, and accounted for in specie by the trustee, as is ordinarily the case of a mere trust committed to a non-banking trustee. The case is not one of a strictly special deposit, in which the particular money or thing deposited is to be kept separate and returned in specie. The case is one of a deposit of funds with a bank, where the specific funds deposited are received by the bank to be converted into other funds, but nevertheless to create a fund held and used by the bank only for a specific purpose, — usually called a specific deposit. A fund so created is held in trust by the bank for a specific designated purpose, and is a trust fund, which the bank holds merely as trustee. The bank, as to the beneficiaries, does not take title to the fund so created. Officer v. Officer,
III. The receiver contends that the fund has not been traced into his hands. The $6,000 note went into the possession of the bank, and became a part of its bills receivable. The note is presumed to have been worth its face. Mulenix v.
5. TRUSTS: Fairfield Nat. Bank,
IV. The order fixing time for filing claims was for the purpose of enabling the court to liquidate the estate in an orderly and equitable manner. It was within the discretion of the court to permit the claim to be presented and allowed 6. RECEIVERS: after the expiration of the time fixed, — at claims: least in the absence of any showing of prejudice. belated filing. *552
The judgment is — Affirmed.
De GRAFF, VERMILION, and ALBERT, JJ., concur.
EVANS, C.J., and STEVENS, J., dissent.