159 So. 576 | La. | 1934
Lead Opinion
On the 20th of February, 1933, the board of supervisors of Jones county, Miss., sent a cheek, for $7,932.30 to the Hibernia Bank &
“We hand you herewith our check in the amount of $7,932.30, to be used in the payment of bonds and coupons due at your bank on March 2, 1933, as follows:
“Jones County, Mississippi, Supervisors
“District #2, Bonds, Nos. 73 to 84, inclusive, for $500.00 each, $6,000.00
“128 coupons @ $15.00 each, $1,920.00
“Commission % of 1% on bonds, $7.50
“Commission % of 1% on coupons, $4.80
‘When the within mentioned bonds and coupons have been paid pleas forward to this bank properly cancelled in order that we may deliver same to the Board of Supervisors of Jones County, Mississippi.”
The check, with the letter of instructions, was received by the Hibernia Bank & Trust Company on the 24th of February, 1933, and the amount of the check, $7,932.30, was collected from the Whitney National Bank, through the New Orleans Clearing House, on the 24th of February, 1933. The Hibernia Bank & Trust Company, in order to have a record of the funds, and of the disbursements to be made, set up two accounts on the books of the bank; one account being styled “Jones County Bonds Payment Account,” and the other account being styled “Jones County 6% Road Bond Coupon Account.” The funds, of course, awaiting’ the maturity of the bonds and coupons and their presentation for payment, were not segregated from the other deposits in the Hibernia Bank, except by the bookkeeping entry, and formed a part of all of the deposits in the bank; so that the amount which was thus held by the Hibernia Bank & Trust Company to pay the bonds and coupons due on the 2d of March, 1933, was carried on the books of the 'bank as a part of the general deposit liability of the bank.
On the 2d of March, 1933, none of the bonds or coupons having been paid or presented for payment, the Hibernia Bank & Trust Company, becoming insolvent, was closed by an order of the Governor of Louisiana and by orders of the New Orleans Clearing House Association, and remained closed, under proclamations of the President and acts of the Congress of the United States. On the 20th of May, 1933, the State Bank Commissioner took charge of the bank and began the liquidation of its affairs under orders of the civil district court for the parish of Orleans. Thereafter, the available dividend due to all depositors was, by an order of the civil district court, deposited in the Hibernia National Bank, which was organized as the successor to the Hibernia Bank & Trust Company, to the credit of the depositors, respectively. Accordingly, the sum of $3,631.32 was deposited in the Hibernia National Bank to the credit.of Jones county, Miss.; and the sum of $20.61 was paid out by the Hibernia National Bank, as a partial payment on the Jones county coupons. The board of supervisors of Jones county did not consent to being a depositor in the Hibernia National Bank, but
This suit, therefore, was brought by way of an intervention in the liquidation of the Hibernia Bank & Trust Company, by Jones county, Miss., claiming a lien on all of the property and assets of the bank, under the provisions of section 1 of Act No. 63 of 1926. The bank commissioner and his special agent and the liquidator, as defendants in the suit, denied that the case came within the provisions of the statute, and hence pleaded that Jones county, Miss., was merely a depositor in the Hibernia Bank & Trust Company, and as such was an ordinary creditor of the insolvent bank. The judge of the civil district court decided in favor of Jones county, Miss.; and the bank commissioner and his special agent and the liquidator have appealed from the decision.
The only question is whether the facts of the case bring it within the provisions of section 1 of* Act No. 63 of 1926, viz.:
“That when any bank receives as agent (whether as agent of another bank or of any person, firm or corporation) for collection and remittance or delivery to its principal and not for deposit any bill, note, check, order, draft, bond, receipt, bill of lading, or other evidence of indebtedness, or other instrument, and collects or realizes any money on the same, and has not deposited same to the credit of said principal, the principal shall have a privilege (lien] on all of the property and assets of said agent bank for the amount so collected or realized by said agent bank,” etc.
The contention of the appellants is that the check which Jones county, Miss., sent to the Hibernia Bank & Trust Company as agent was sent, not “for collection and remittance or delivery to its principal,” but for collection and deposit. In support of the argument it is shown that, during a period of seven years, similar remittances were made regularly, semiannually, by the board of supervisors of Jones county, Miss., to the I-Iibemia Bank & Trust Company, under similar instructions, to pay the bonds of the county, and the coupons thereon, which were maturing semiannually and were payable at the Hibernia Bank. And it is shown that, in every instance, the Hibernia Bank & Trust Company handled the proceeds of the check exactly as the proceeds were handled in this instance; that is, by depositing the proceeds in the Hibernia Bank, in a special account, from which the bonds and coupons were paid by the Hibernia Bank as the bonds and coupons matured- and were presented by the bondholders. It appears also that, at the end of every one of these semiannual transactions, during the period of seven years, the board of supervisors of Jones county, Miss., received from the Hibernia Bank & Trust Company, and acknowledged receipt of, a statement showing how the funds were handled. It must be inferred, therefore, that when the board of supervisors of Jones county, Miss., sent the check for $7,932.30 to the Hibernia Bank & Trust Company, on the 20th of February, 1933, to pay the bonds and coupons maturing on the 2d of March, 1933, the board of supervisors did not intend that the bank should keep the proceeds of the check segregated from the funds belonging to the bank, as in an envelope, awaiting the maturity and presentation of the bonds and
It is contended by the appellants that Jones county, Miss., is not entitled to the lien provided for by the act of 1926, because the proceeds of the check on the Whitney National Bank were in fact deposited by the Hibernia Bank & Trust Company in its bank. The proceeds of the check were deposited by the Hibernia Bank & Trust Company, but not to the credit of Jones county, Miss. The proceeds were deposited to the credit of the two special accounts which were set up on the books of the Hibernia Bank & Trust Compa
“The act, in making it a condition to the existence of the privilege that the proceeds of the instrument be not deposited by the bank to the credit of its principal, means that the money must not be deposited unconditionally to the credit of the principal with his authority.” (Italics ours.)
The money belonging to Jones county, Miss., was deposited only temporarily, and only as a necessary or convenient method of carrying out the mandate to collect the check and to apply the proceeds to the payment of the bonds.
It is argued for the appellants that the stipulation in the statute, as a condition on which the lien shall exist, that the instrument which is sent to the bank for collection as agent for the sender must be sent “not for deposit,” is unqualified, and therefore does not mean necessarily or only that the instrument must be sent “not for deposit to the credit of the principal.” Hence it is argued that, as the board of supervisors of Jones county, Miss.-, knew or must have known that the I-Iibemia Bank & Trust Company would not keep the proceeds of the check segregated, but would deposit the proceeds into the bank’s coffers, to the credit of a special account, but as a part of all other deposits, Jones county,
It is argued for the appellants that, in this instance, the instrument which was sent to the Hibernia Bank & Trust Company for collection and remittance or delivery, as agent, was not intended for “remittance or delivery to its principal,” but was intended for remittance or delivery to the bondholders.- Hence it is argued that that one of the stipulations of the statute is lacking. .O.ur opinion, on the contrary, is that the expression means for remittance or delivery to the principal or order. It is true that statutes conferring a lien must be construed literally, not liberally; but that does not mean that such statutes shall be construed so literally and strictly according to their words as to deprive them of their application to cases which they are manifestly intended to apply to. It is not a liberal construction, but only a reasonable construction, of this statute, to say that a remittance or delivery of a sum of money to a person designated by the owner to receive the money constitutes a remittance or delivery to the owner of the money.
It is argued, finally, for the appellants, that the act of 1926 was not intended to apply to a case like this, where the instrument was sent to the bank not merely for collection and remittance or delivery to the sender, but for the purpose of paying an ■ obligation of the sender. It is true that the main purpose of sending to the Hibernia Bank & Trust Com.pany the check on the Whitney National Bank was not merely to collect the check, but to pay the bonds and coupons which were payable at the Hibernia Bank. That means that the authority of the Hibernia Bank & Trust Company, as agent for Jones county, Miss., extended further than to collect the check. But the agency or mandate incuded the authority and duty to collect the check; and the fact that the mandate went further, and included also the authority and duty to remit or deliver the proceeds to the bondholders, does not take the case out of the provisions of the statute.
The judgment is affirmed.
Dissenting Opinion
(dissenting).
My views are not in accord with the majority opinion.
In the agreed statement of facts it was stipulated:
“(5) That if H. H. Chambliss and D. U. Maddox, officers of said Commercial National Bank & Trust Company were called to the*348 stand they would each testify that remittances for Jones County to cover prior maturities of this series of bonds to the Hibernia Bank & Trust Company were made in exactly the same way as this one, accompanied by letters similar to Exhibit ‘0,’ without any actual notice of the manner in which said Hibernia Bank & Trust Company handled the funds between the receipt thereof and payment of bonds and coupons.
“That the Hibernia Bank & Trust Company sent to the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors of Jones County, Mississippi, statements as of March 1,1933, May 30,1932, and November 13, 1932, respectively, copies of which statements are attached hereto and will be offered and filed in evidence and marked Defendants ‘4,’ ‘5’ and ‘6’ respectively; that said statements were receipted for by the Secretary of the Board of Supervisors, which said receipts are annexed hereto and will be offered and filed in evidence and marked Defendants ‘7,’ ‘8’ and ‘9,’ respectively; that the said three statements are samples and conform with similar statements rendered by the Hibernia Bank & Trust Company to the Board of Supervisors of Jones County, Mississippi, covering previous remittances by Jones County to the Hibernia Bank & Trust Company for the payment of bonds and coupons maturity at six months intervals prior thereto.
“(6) That the funds received from Jones County for the payments of the bonds and coupons due March 2, 1933, as well as the funds received by the Hibernia Bank & Trust Company for the payment of prior maturities of bonds and coupons of the same series, were not segregated by the Hibernia Bank & Trust Company, but were co-mingled with the general funds of the Hibernia Bank & Trust Company.
“(7) That the holders of bonds and coupons of the said series of Jones County which matures March 2, 1933 and at six months intervals prior thereto, did not present their bonds and coupons for payment promptly on the maturity date and did not present their bonds and coupons for payment all at the same time, as the said bonds and coupons were not all held by the same parties; and that the manner in which the said account was handled by the Hibernia Bank & Trust Company and the dates on which maturing bonds and coupons were paid is evidenced by the ledger sheets of the Hibernia Bank & Trust Company which are attached hereto and which may be offered and filed in evidence and marked Defendant ‘10’ and ‘11’ respectively ; it is being agreed by and between counsel for plaintiff and defendant that the said sheets are samples of similar ledger sheets of the Hibernia Bank & Trust Company covering bonds and coupons maturing at previous dates.”
“(9) That Jones County, Mississippi had no ‘Checking Account’ with the Hibernia Bank & Trust Company, but that there was set up on the books of the Hibernia Bank & Trust Company a ‘Jones County Bonds Payment Account,’ as well as another account known as ‘Jones County 6% Road Bond Coupon Account’ and that in said Bonds Payment Account and in said Coupon Account funds sent by Jones County for the payment of Bonds and Coupons were entered by the Hibernia Bank & Trust Company as shown by the ledger sheets hereinabove referred to and*350 marked for identification Exhibits Defendant ‘L,’ ‘3’ and ‘10’ and ‘11,’ respectively, and that when said bonds and coupons were paid by Hibernia Bank & Trust Company that said accounts were debited with the amounts and the dates of the said payments.
“(10) That the sum of seven thousand nine hundred twenty and 00/100 ($7,920.00) dollars sent to the Hibernia Bank <Sp Trust Company by Jones County in the form of the check referred to in paragraph four of the stipulations was entered in the books of the Hibernia Bank & Trust Company as follows, to-wit: six thousand and no/100 ($6,000.00) dollars in ‘Jones County, Bonds Payment Account’ under date of February 24, 1933, the said six thousand and no/100 ($6,000.00) dollars being
Coupon Number , Due Date DEBIT Description Amount Date CREDIT Description Amount Balance
29 9/2/30 Coupons $30.00 11/13/30 Last Balance $30.00 —O—
30 3/2/31 ■ “ 2,280.00 2/26/31 Deposit 2,280.00 —0—
31 9/2/31 “ 2,100.00 9/1/31 “ 2,100.00 —0—
32 3/2/32 “ 2,100.00 2/29/32 “ 2,100.00 —0—
6,510.00 6,510.00 —0—
entered in the column headed ‘Credits’ with the entry ‘By deposit to pay bonds due 3/2/33’ with the balance of said funds, to-wit, the sum of one thousand nine hundred twenty and no/100 ($1,920.00) dollars being entered in the ‘Jones County, Mississippi Coupon Account’ under date of February 24, 1933, in the column headed ‘Credits’ with the entry ‘Deposit’ under the heading ‘Coupon No. 34, maturity March 2, 1933,’ all of which will more fully appear from the photostats of the ledger accounts. * * * ”
One of the statements sent by the Hibernia Bank & Trust Company to the board of supervisors of Jones county, and the acknowledgment thereof, are as follows:
“Hibernia Bank & Trust Company
“New Orleans, La., 5/31/32
“Mr. U. V. Busby, Chancery Clerk,
“Jones County, Miss.
“Laurel, Miss.
“No. 3905.
“Following is a statement of your Supervisors Dist. #2 6% Bonds coupon account, as of close of business 5/30/32, together with cancelled coupons as evidenced by said statement.
“Please verify the correctness of this statement, and return the attached receipt properly signed.
“(Acknowledgment) No. 3905.
“IMPORTANT — SIGN AND RETURN THIS RECEIPT.
“Received from the Hibernia Bank & Trust Company, cancelled coupons aggregating $6,-510.00, as evidenced by statement rendered at close of business 5/30/32.
“Jones County, Miss.
“By W. L. Busby, Clerk,
“By Chas. T. Walters, D. O.”
It is the uniform jurisprudence of this state that statutes conferring a privilege must be strictly construed and cannot be extended by implication or analogy.
“No considerations of equity can enter into the determination of the right of privilege. If the law does not grant the privilege, the court is powerless .to do so. The rule is too familiar to need citation of authority that privileges are never allowed, except when expressly granted, and only by virtue of compliance with the legal requisites essential to their creation and existence.” ■
In the case of Ittman et al. v. Kracke & Flanders Co., 12 La. App. 672, 127 So. 106, 107, it was held:
“In order to establish a lien and privilege * * * the defendant in rule must be able to invoke some pertinent and applicable codal or statutory provision creating such a lien or privilege.”
In the case of Dodd v. Horan (La. App.) 121 So. 323 (syllabus) it was held:
“Under Civ. Code art. 3185, privileges are stricti juris, are not created by covenant, and can be allowed only in cases where they are expressly granted by statute or Code.”
See, also. Rod River Const. Co. v. Pierce Petroleum Corp., 165 La. 565, 115 So. 752.
An analysis of the provisions of the statute (Act No. 63 of 1926) shows that three things must concur before the statute is applicable:
(1)The holder or owner of the cheek, draft, note, etc., must send it to the bank as agent, for collection and remittance or delivery to the principal.
(2) There must be an actual collection or realizing by the bank, as agent, of the proceeds represented by the check, draft, note, etc.
(3) There must also be an agreement, expressed or implied, that the check, draft, or note, etc., was received for collection and remittance or delivery and not for deposit.
The word “deposit,” as used in the act, is not synonymous with “checking account.” It is a general term and it obviously covers or includes not only checking accounts and savings accounts, but also any kind of an account where a special deposit is made. In short, it is immaterial what kind of a deposit the owner and forwarder of the paper impliedly or expressly authorizes the bank to make, for if he does authorize the making of a deposit of the proceeds of the check, etc., the act under its express provisions has no application to the transaction. Of course, the making of any kind of deposit requires a bookkeeping entry.
The letter accompanying the check involved in this litigation did not expressly state whether or not the proceeds realized from the collection of the check were to be deposited. In short, the letter was silent on that subject. In the absence of expressed directions to the bank relative depositing the funds realized from the check, we must look to the intentions of the parties, which must be gathered and determined from the facts surrounding the transaction. S. E. Hall, Inc., v. Farmers’ Trust & Savings Bank of Lockport, 177 La. 659, 148 So. 909.
The fact that the bonds and coupons were owned by various parties and the check was for a lump sum, which covered all of the bonds’and coupons maturing on March 2d.
In the instant case the deposit was made for a special purpose and intervener had the right to withdraw the money from»the bank at any time before it was paid by simply ordering the bank to return the money, because the principal can revoke the authority of his agent before the agent performs the act authorized. Staten Island, etc., Club v. Farmers’ Loan & Trust Co., 41 App. Div. 321, 58 N. Y. S. 460.
It is clear that the statute does not create in favor of a special depositor a lien and privilege on the assets of the bank, to secure the deposit in the event the bank fails to carry out the purpose for which the special deposit was made, or return the money to the depositor.
If a person makes a special deposit of cash with a bank for the purpose of liquidating future maturing obligations, and the bank fails to pay out the money in accordance with the agreement of deposit, or to return the money to the depositor, the act does not give
Having concluded that the intervener contemplated when remitting the check accompanied by the letter that the funds realized from the check would be deposited in an account as a medium of payment, and having also acquiesced in this procedure and method of handling the money by the bank as a result of actual knowledge imparted to it through the semiannual statements furnished intervener by the bank, it follows that Act No. 63 of 1926 has no application to this case, because the statute does not apply to cases where the funds are deposited with the expressed or implied consent of the depositor.
Now, since the bank, as agent for intervener, permitted the proceeds of the check to be commingled with the bank’s general funds, so that it is impossible to trace or identify the res, intervener must assert its claim in the liquidation proceedings as an ordinary creditor. Tropical Printing Co., Inc., v. Union Title Guarantee Co., Inc., 180 La. 702, 157 So. 534, decided October 2, 1934, and authorities therein cited.
In the case of Gulley v. Wisdom, 69 F.(2d) 495, decided by the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the court said:
“Claimant to establish preferential lien against assets of insolvent bank has burden to show what he deposited and to trace it, receiver not being required to prove where the money in his hands came from.”
In the case of Wisdom v. Keen, 69 F.(2d) 349—United States Circuit Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, where the bank agreed to hold 81,200 in cash, in escrow, to be delivered, not paid — the court said:
“This is another of the multiplying cases in which the ratable distribution to all creditors of the assets of a failed national bank under 12 USCA § 194 is sought to be disturbed by the assertion of a lien upon them because of a commingled trust fund. * * *
“The obligation was perfect to segregate and hold the cash. Equity if dealing with the bank alone might well consider that it had done what it should have done and might well hold it to the consequences. American National Bank v. Miller, 229 U. S. 517, 33 S. Ct. 883, 57 L. Ed. 1310. But in dealing with the distribution of the assets of an insolvent*358 national bank and with the requirement of ratable dividends to all claimants a more stringent adherence to what was actually-done is proper. Here the bank agreed to seg-. regate a trust res but never did it. By their mutual intent the' bank’s relation to Keen was that of a trustee rather than a debtor, but .there is still no identifiable trust res traceable as such, but only a liability for a breach of trust in failing to create the res. This liability, absent a statutory priority or lien, has no higher dignity than ether general liabilities. As tp every general creditor the bank has failed to do what it ought to have done and what it promised, to do. The federal statute puts all suoh claimants on an equality. * * * (Italics ours.)
See, also, Pottorff v. Key (C. C. A.) 67 F.(2d) 833; Carcaba v. McNair (C. C. A.) 68 F.(2d) 795.
For the reasons assigned, I respectfully dissent.
Lead Opinion
On the 20th of February, 1933, the board of supervisors of Jones county, Miss., sent a check for $7,932.30 to the Hibernia Bank *337 Trust Company, in New Orleans, to pay certain bonds and coupons, maturing on the 2d of March, 1933, and payable at the Hibernia Bank. The check was drawn by the Commercial National Bank Trust Company, of Laurel, Miss., on the Whitney National Bank, in New Orleans, and was sent with a letter of instructions given by the Commercial National Bank Trust Company to the Hibernia Bank Trust Company, viz.:
"We hand you herewith our check in the amount of $7,932.30, to be used in the payment of bonds and coupons due at your bank on March 2, 1933, as follows:
"Jones County, Mississippi, Supervisors
"District #2, Bonds, Nos. 73 to 84, inclusive, for $500.00 each, $6,000.00
"128 coupons @ $15.00 each, $1,920.00
"Commission 1/8 of 1% on bonds, $7.50
"Commission 1/4 of 1% on coupons, $4.80
"When the within mentioned bonds and coupons have been paid pleas forward to this bank properly cancelled in order that we may deliver same to the Board of Supervisors of Jones County, Mississippi."
The check, with the letter of instructions, was received by the Hibernia Bank Trust Company on the 24th of February, 1933, and the amount of the check, $7,932.30, was collected from the Whitney National Bank, through the New Orleans Clearing House, on the 24th of February, 1933. The Hibernia Bank Trust Company, in order to have a record of the funds, and of the disbursements to be made, set up two accounts on the books of the bank; one account being styled "Jones County Bonds Payment Account," and the other *338 account being styled "Jones County 6% Road Bond Coupon Account." The funds, of course, awaiting the maturity of the bonds and coupons and their presentation for payment, were not segregated from the other deposits in the Hibernia Bank, except by the bookkeeping entry, and formed a part of all of the deposits in the bank; so that the amount which was thus held by the Hibernia Bank Trust Company to pay the bonds and coupons due on the 2d of March, 1933, was carried on the books of the bank as a part of the general deposit liability of the bank.
On the 2d of March, 1933, none of the bonds or coupons having been paid or presented for payment, the Hibernia Bank Trust Company, becoming insolvent, was closed by an order of the Governor of Louisiana and by orders of the New Orleans Clearing House Association, and remained closed, under proclamations of the President and acts of the Congress of the United States. On the 20th of May, 1933, the State Bank Commissioner took charge of the bank and began the liquidation of its affairs under orders of the civil district court for the parish of Orleans. Thereafter, the available dividend due to all depositors was, by an order of the civil district court, deposited in the Hibernia National Bank, which was organized as the successor to the Hibernia Bank Trust Company, to the credit of the depositors, respectively. Accordingly, the sum of $3,631.32 was deposited in the Hibernia National Bank to the credit of Jones county, Miss.; and the sum of $20.61 was paid out by the Hibernia National Bank, as a partial payment on the Jones county coupons. The board of supervisors of Jones county did not consent to being a depositor in the Hibernia National Bank, but *339 promptly drew out the balance, $3,610.71, with reservation of the right to sue the liquidators of the Hibernia Bank Trust Company for the balance of the proceeds of the check for $7,932.30.
This suit, therefore, was brought by way of an intervention in the liquidation of the Hibernia Bank Trust Company, by Jones county, Miss., claiming a lien on all of the property and assets of the bank, under the provisions of section 1 of Act No. 63 of 1926. The bank commissioner and his special agent and the liquidator, as defendants in the suit, denied that the case came within the provisions of the statute, and hence pleaded that Jones county, Miss., was merely a depositor in the Hibernia Bank Trust Company, and as such was an ordinary creditor of the insolvent bank. The judge of the civil district court decided in favor of Jones county, Miss.; and the bank commissioner and his special agent and the liquidator have appealed from the decision.
The only question is whether the facts of the case bring it within the provisions of section 1 of Act No. 63 of 1926, viz.:
"That when any bank receives as agent (whether as agent of another bank or of any person, firm or corporation) for collection and remittance or delivery to its principal and not for deposit any bill, note, check, order, draft, bond, receipt, bill of lading, or other evidence of indebtedness, or other instrument, and collects or realizes any money on the same, and has not deposited same to the credit of said principal, the principal shall have a privilege [lien] on all of the property and assets of said agent bank for the amount so collected or realized by said agent bank," etc. *340
The contention of the appellants is that the check which Jones county, Miss., sent to the Hibernia Bank Trust Company as agent was sent, not "for collection and remittance or delivery to its principal," but for collection and deposit. In support of the argument it is shown that, during a period of seven years, similar remittances were made regularly, semiannually, by the board of supervisors of Jones county, Miss., to the Hibernia Bank Trust Company, under similar instructions, to pay the bonds of the county, and the coupons thereon, which were maturing semiannually and were payable at the Hibernia Bank. And it is shown that, in every instance, the Hibernia Bank Trust Company handled the proceeds of the check exactly as the proceeds were handled in this instance; that is, by depositing the proceeds in the Hibernia Bank, in a special account, from which the bonds and coupons were paid by the Hibernia Bank as the bonds and coupons matured and were presented by the bondholders. It appears also that, at the end of every one of these semiannual transactions, during the period of seven years, the board of supervisors of Jones county, Miss., received from the Hibernia Bank Trust Company, and acknowledged receipt of, a statement showing how the funds were handled. It must be inferred, therefore, that when the board of supervisors of Jones county, Miss., sent the check for $7,932.30 to the Hibernia Bank Trust Company, on the 20th of February, 1933, to pay the bonds and coupons maturing on the 2d of March, 1933, the board of supervisors did not intend that the bank should keep the proceeds of the check segregated from the funds belonging to the bank, as in an envelope, awaiting the maturity and presentation of the bonds and *341
coupons which were to be paid. But that inference would prevail even if there had never before been any such transaction between Jones county, Miss., and the Hibernia Bank Trust Company; because it is never intended that a bank that receives as agent, and not for deposit but for collection and remittance or delivery, a draft, or a check drawn on another bank, is to keep the proceeds of the draft or check segregated, as in an envelope, until remitted or delivered. As we understand, a bank that collects an item that is received for collection and remittance or delivery never segregates the proceeds of the collection, or remits or delivers the identical money that is collected, but remits its own check, or exchange on a bank at or near the place of remittance or delivery. If the sender of a check or draft to a bank for collection and remittance or delivery should require the proceeds of the check or draft to be segregated until remitted or delivered, or require the identical money collected to be remitted or delivered, there would be no occasion to rely upon the protection afforded by such a statute as the act of 1926. If the proceeds of a check or draft collected by a bank as agent for the owner of the check or draft are so segregated by the agent as to be identified as the property of the principal, he needs no lien, and has no lien, on the property of the agent. Tropical Printing Co. v. Union Title Guarantee Co.,
It is contended by the appellants that Jones county, Miss., is not entitled to the lien provided for by the act of 1926, because the proceeds of the check on the Whitney National Bank were in fact deposited by the Hibernia Bank Trust Company in its bank. The proceeds of the check were deposited by the Hibernia Bank
Trust Company, but not to the credit of Jones county, Miss. The proceeds were deposited to the credit of the two special accounts which were set up on the books of the Hibernia Bank Trust *343
Company, as a necessary bookkeeping entry, to have an account of the funds. The act of 1926 requires, as a condition on which the lien is granted, that the bank that has collected the money as agent "has not deposited same to the credit of said principal." The money, in this instance, was not deposited to the credit of the principal, Jones county, Miss. Jones county, Miss., or the board of Supervisors of the county, could not have checked against the deposit, or drawn out the money. It is true that Jones county, Miss., might have withdrawn the fund by rescinding the mandate; but, as long as the mandate continued, the Hibernia Bank Trust Company held the money as the agent for Jones county, Miss., and not as depositary for Jones county, Miss. The expression in the statute, "and has not deposited same to the credit of said principal," has reference to a deposit in the name and to the credit of the principal, with his approval, either express or implied. It was so held in Hall, Inc., v. Farmers' Trust Savings Bank,
"The act, in making it a condition to the existence of the privilege that the proceeds of the instrument be not deposited by the bank to the credit of its principal, means that the money must not be deposited unconditionally to the credit of theprincipal with his authority." (Italics ours.)
The money belonging to Jones county, Miss., was deposited only temporarily, and only as a necessary or convenient method of carrying out the mandate to collect the check and to apply the proceeds to the payment of the bonds.
It is argued for the appellants that the stipulation in the statute, as a condition on which the lien shall exist, that the instrument which is sent to the bank for collection as agent for the sender must be sent "not for deposit," is unqualified, and therefore does not mean necessarily or only that the instrument must be sent "not for deposit to the credit of the principal." Hence it is argued that, as the board of supervisors of Jones county, Miss., knew or must have known that the Hibernia Bank Trust Company would not keep the proceeds of the check segregated, but would deposit the proceeds into the bank's coffers, to the credit of a special account, but as a part of all other deposits, Jones county, *345 Miss., has no lien under the statute. But the expression in the first part of the statute, "and not for deposit," is explained immediately by the further expression, "and has not deposited same to the credit of said principal." There is no doubt that the expression first used, "and not for deposit," is to be interpreted in connection with the expression which follows, "to the credit of said principal." And the deposit which is referred to, as we said in the Hall Case, means a regular deposit to the credit of the principal's checking account, and with his consent or approveal, either express or implied. A bank that receives as agent an instrument for collection and remittance, and not for deposit, cannot deprive the sender of his lien, by depositing the proceeds of the instrument to the credit of the principal, and then failing and closing its doors before the principal has had an opportunity to approve of the deposit, and thereby to become an ordinary creditor of the bank.
It is argued for the appellants that, in this instance, the instrument which was sent to the Hibernia Bank Trust Company for collection and remittance or delivery, as agent, was not intended for "remittance or delivery to its principal," but was intended for remittance or delivery to the bondholders. Hence it is argued that that one of the stipulations of the statute is lacking. Our opinion, on the contrary, is that the expression means for remittance or delivery to the principal or order. It is true that statutes conferring a lien must be construed literally, not liberally; but that does not mean that such statutes shall be construed so literally and strictly according to their words as to deprive them of their application to cases which they are *346 manifestly intended to apply to. It is not a liberal construction, but only a reasonable construction, of this statute, to say that a remittance or delivery of a sum of money to a person designated by the owner to receive the money constitutes a remittance or delivery to the owner of the money.
It is argued, finally, for the appellants, that the act of 1926 was not intended to apply to a case like this, where the instrument was sent to the bank not merely for collection and remittance or delivery to the sender, but for the purpose of paying an obligation of the sender. It is true that the main purpose of sending to the Hibernia Bank Trust Company the check on the Whitney National Bank was not merely to collect the check, but to pay the bonds and coupons which were payable at the Hibernia Bank. That means that the authority of the Hibernia Bank Trust Company, as agent for Jones county, Miss. extended further than to collect the check. But the agency or mandate included the authority and duty to collect the check; and the fact that the mandate went further, and included also the authority and duty to remit or deliver the proceeds to the bondholders, does not take the case out of the provisions of the statute.
The judgment is affirmed.
