67 A. 583 | N.H. | 1907
The defendant bank under its charter was authorized to receive deposits of money on such terms and conditions as might be prescribed by it or its trustees, or be agreed to by the parties making the same, and to receive special deposits to constitute a permanent guaranty fund. Laws 1879, c. 131, ss. 2, 3. The charter contemplates two classes of depositors: "general depositors" and "special depositors for the guaranty fund." In the ordinary savings bank the general depositors in some respects are stockholders, and their claims in case of insolvency are postponed to the claims of creditors. Francestown Savings Bank Case,
By force of the relation created by the charter, the special depositors, as stockholders, could not share in the distribution of the corporate assets until the claims of all creditors, including the general depositors, were paid. Hall v. Paris,
The charter provided that the general deposits should be entitled *294
to such rate of interest as might be prescribed or agreed upon. Under the regulations prescribed, the general depositors had also the right to withdraw their deposits upon certain terms as to notice. So long as the general depositors voluntarily permitted their money to remain on deposit, such action constituted an assent to the rate of interest proposed to be paid by the bank. If they were notified that the bank refused in the future to pay any interest, and did not withdraw their deposit when they could do so, they would be estopped to claim interest. Parsons v. Treadwell,
As the fund is not sufficient to pay three and one half per cent, — the contract rate when the bank ceased to operate as a bank, — it is not necessary to consider whether after the breach the general depositors could claim interest at a higher rate.
Exception overruled.
All concurred. *295