30 Ga. App. 55 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1923
(After stating the foregoing facts.) The plain
However, in a decision rendered subsequently to the decision of any of the cases cited above, the Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of Central Trust Co. v. Chicago Auditorium Asso., 240 U. S. 581 (60 L. ed. 811), in discussing the question under consideration and the ruling made in People v. Globe Mutual Life Ins. Co., supra, said: “ It is argued that there can be no anticipatory breach of a contract except it result from the voluntary act of one of the parties, and that the filing of an involuntary petition in bankruptcy, with adjudication thereon, is but the act of the law resulting from an adverse proceeding instituted by creditors.. This view was taken, with respect to the effect of a state proceeding restraining a corporation from the further prosecution of .its business or the exercise of its corporate franchise, appointing a receiver, and dissolving the corporation, in People v. Globe Mut. L. Ins. Co., 91 N. Y. 174, cited with approval in some of the Federal-court decisions above referred to. In that case it did not appear that the company was the responsible cause of the action of the State, so as to make the dissolution its own act; but, irrespective of this, we cannot accept the reasoning. As was was said in Roehm v. Horst, 178 U. S. 19 (44 L. ed. 960, 20 Sup. Ct. Rep. 780); c The parties to a contract which is wholly executory have a right to the maintenance of the contractual relations up to the time for performance, as well as to a performance of the contract when due.’ Commercial credits are; to a large extent, based upon the reasonable expectation that pending contracts of acknowledged validity will be performed in due course;
It follows that the argument in the instant case, that the intervention of the State, through its superintendent of banks, or, in other words, of the sovereign power, operated as vis major, loses sight of the all-important and controlling fact that such intervention must be held to he the necessary consequence of the acts of the insolvent bank itself in provoking such intervention, by the mismanagement of its affairs. The State superintendent of banks cannot intervene until the insolvent bank by its action has given him cause to act. Consequently, we think it stands to reason that a State bank cannot, as a result of its own acts of omission or commission (its own mismanagement), secure a release from the obligations of its just contracts. If corporations could be thus relieved from the obligations of their contracts, they would stand in a much more favored position than ordinary persons. Tn addition to the United States Supreme Court decision, supra, we cite in support of our conclusion the following cases: Isaac McLean Sons Co. v. William S. Butler & Co., 227 Fed. 325; Spader v. Mural Decoration Mfg. Co., 47 N. J. Eq. 18 (20 Atl. 378); Eddy v. Co-operative Dress Asso., 3 N. Y. Civ. Proc. Rep. 442; Reid v. Explosive Co., L. R. 19 Q. B. Div. (Eng.) 264 (56 L. J. Q. B. N. S. 388, 57 L. T. N. S. 439, 35 Week. Rep. 509).
It is also contended by the defendant that the plaintiff, in any event, was not entitled to any salary for the period beginning
It follows from what has been said that under the facts adduced and the law applicable thereto, a verdict in favor of the plaintiff for the full amount sued for was demanded; and therefore the judgment of the lower court, overruling the plaintiff’s motion for a new trial, is reversed; and the judgment overruling the defendant’s motion for a new trial is affirmed.
Judgment reversed in case 14120; affirmed in case 14121.