139 Ga. 54 | Ga. | 1912
In the year 1907, on the application of the attorney-general of Georgia, the assets of the Neal Bank were placed in the custody of a receiver, pursuant to section 2306 of the Civil Code Prior to and at the date of the receivership, the bank was a designated depository of the State, and at the time of its failure the bank was indebted to the State in a large sum of money deposited by various State officials, which deposits appeared upon the books of the bank. By appropriate interventions the State set up the fac-t that at the time of the bank failure she had on deposit in the bank certain sums of money deposited by and standing in the name of the State treasurer and other State officials, and claimed a first and prior lien over all other depositors on the assets of the bank, and prayed that her lien be established and the receiver be directed to pay her the several amounts of money so deposited. The trial court decreed that the money deposited in the name of the State officials was the money of the State, and that the State had a prior lien on the assets of the bank; and the receiver was directed to pay to the State the sums so standing in the name of the officials, according to the terms of the decree. This court, on reviéw, affirmed that decree. Booth v. State of Georgia, 131 Ga. 750 (63 S. E. 502); Booth v. State of Georgia, 134 Ga. 163 (67 S. E. 803).
A single cause of action can not be split up and tried by piecemeal. Atlanta Elevator Company v. Fulton Mills, 106 Ga. 430 (32 S. E. 541). In the opinion in that case Lumpkin, P. J., said: “Nothing is better settled than that the measure of damages for
As the plaintiff in error has obtained a material modification of the judgment of the court below, we hold that it is entitled to the costs of bringing the case to this court. ■
Judgment reversed in part, and affirmed in part.
I can not agree to so much of the majority opinion as holds that the State is entitled to recover from the receiver of the Neal Bank seven per cent, per annum as legal interest from the date of the receivership to the date of payment of the State’s
It even required a statute to make executions for taxes bear interest, and certainly the collection of its taxes has ever been as important and as necessary to the State as the collection of its claims against insolvent banks which are State depositories. .As I have already said, there is no statute providing for any special rate of interest on such claims of the State, in the absence of a contract rate of interest; therefore in such cases the State is entitled to the same rate of interest as individual creditors of the bank; but where there is a contract rate, then the State is bound by that just as other creditors are bound. I am authorized by Justice 'Atkinson to state that he concurs in my dissenting opinion.