243 Pa. 534 | Pa. | 1914
Opinion by
The evidence here shows a deposit of $3,379.10 in the appellant bank by%the.South.'Penn'Oil,Company to.he applied specially. . The oil company, had agreed to .purchase from William S. Stevenson an interest in a certain oil property in West Virginia, In order to be protected ■ against the supposed lien resting, on the property, by and
The deposit was accordingly made and the agreement was lodged with the bank. The bank was thus constituted the agent of the oil company to pay over the money when the conditions had been met by Stevenson. This was in August, 1890. Shortly thereafter Stevenson began a proceeding in the Circuit Court of Monongahela County, West Virginia, against one Ira DeWitt and others, for the purpose of clearing the property sold to the oil company of the supposed lien. Stevenson and DeWitt both died pending the suit, DeWitt in 1901 and Stevenson in 1903. The representatives of each were substituted as parties to the suit, and it was not until 1904 that a final disposition was made of the case, and then by agreement of the parties. What that disposition was does not concern us here, except that it is claimed, and the court below found, that the right to the money that had been deposited by the oil company in the appellant bank passed thereby to the representatives of DeWitt. The one question raised by the appeal is whether the bank is chargeable with interest on the deposit, and whether the bank is entitled to be reimbursed for counsel fees paid. The court below by its decree charged the bank with interest at the rate of two per cent, and disallowed its claim for counsel fees.
It is not alleged that the bank had in any way misused the fund, or had unduly withheld it after a proper demand therefor had been made; the claim is for interest on no other ground than that the bank carried it in its
“Whether or not a trustee should be made to pay interest depends largely upon the circumstances in each case, and no general rule can be laid down upon the subject. In the present instance, while we cannot say that the defendant trust company was bound to invest the fund, or that it was chargeable with negligence for not so doing, yet we feel that it should pay the same interest thereon it would pay to a third party who carried with it a deposit of a like character, that is, an account subject to check.”
it will be observed at once that we were there dealing with an express trust which was the subject of equity jurisdiction and control, and with a trustee that was. directly answerable in a court of equity, one who could be removed by such a court and replaced by another of its own selection, and one who could be required to account to such court for the fund committed, to it. In all such cases the duties and responsibilities of the fiduciary are well defined by settled principles. Here we have no such trust, but the whole matter involved rests in contract. The court took jurisdiction of this case in equity, not because it was a trust over which it had juris* diction, but because the bill filed was adjudged in the nature' of interpleader where there were many and conflicting claims to the fund. From what we have said it •follows that error was committed in charging the bank with interest. It just as certainly follows that no .error was committed in refusing appellant any allowance for counsel fees. Whatever expense it was at in. resisting the appellee’s demand for interest, was incurred in protecting, itself. , The assignments of error relating to these, features: of the case, above referred tp are sustained, the decree is reversed, and the record is remitted with instructions that a decree be entered in accordance with the’views here expressed, the costs on this, appeal to be paid by appellee. ,