122 Neb. 109 | Neb. | 1931
In a proceeding by the state to wind up the affairs of the First State Bank of Alliance, an insolvent banking corporation, the city of Alliance intervened and presented a claim for deposits on an equality with all unpaid depositors having preferred • claims.
The First State Bank suspended the business of commercial banking December 30, 1929, when the city had on deposit therein $14,691.56 on which there was accrued interest of $189.15, making a total of $14,880.71. As security for city deposits the First State Bank, September 20, 1929, had pledged seven 1,000-dollar 5 per cent. Federal Land Bank bonds, all of the face value of $7,000, which, for that purpose, were delivered to the Lincoln Trust Company. The bonds were sold June 4, 1930. The net proceeds were $7,158.09 which were credited on the city’s deposits. For the difference between the deposits and interest amounting to $14,880.71 and a credit of $7,158.09 derived from the sale of the bonds, or $7,722.62, the city filed with the receiver a claim as a valid unsecured preferred claim against the assets of the First State Bank entitling claimant to participate in the depositors’ final
An answer of the receiver to the petition in intervention contained a general denial and a plea that intervener’s claim was “otherwise secured” and therefore not a preferred claim within the meaning of the statute which in part provides:
“The claims of depositors, for deposits, not otherwise secured, and claims of holders of exchange, shall have priority over all other claims, except federal, state, county and municipal taxes, and subject to such taxes, shall at the time of the closing of a bank be a first lien on all the assets of the banking corporation from which they are due and thus under receivership, including the liability of stockholders, and, upon proof thereof, they shall be paid immediately out of the available cash in the hands of the receiver. If the cash in the hands of the receiver available for such purposes, be insufficient to pay the Claims of de- ' positors whose deposits are not otherwise secured, and holders of exchange, not given for a previously existing debt of the bank other than a deposit, the court in which the receivership is pending, or a judge theréof, upon hearting shall determine the amount required to supply the deficiency and cause the same to be certified to the department of trade and commerce as a claim entitled to the benefits of the depositors’ final settlement fund.” Comp. St. 1929, sec. 8-1,102.
The facts pleaded by the receiver as defenses were put in issue by a reply.
Upon a trial of the issues raised by the pleadings the district court found that intervener had a valid preferred
The appeal presents this question: Was the city of Alliance a preferred creditor of the First State Bank within the meaning of the statutes ? Stated differently, did the city, by exacting bonds as security for its deposits, prevent itself from participating in the assets of the bank and in the depositors’ final settlement fund for the difference between the amount of the deposits and the proceeds of the bonds, on an equality with preferred creditors or depositors “not otherwise secured?” In the briefs and in the arguments at the bar the question was skilfully presented on both sides. The solution depends on what the legislature meant by the term, “not otherwise secured,” as used in that portion of the statute already quoted, when considered with all statutes relating to banks and banking, to the winding up of insolvent banks, to the distribution of assets among creditors and to the depositors’ final settlement fund. There is no dispute about any material fact. The facts relating to the deposits of the city, to the bonds pledged as security and to the application of the proceeds of the bonds are as herein recited in the statement of the case.
In addition to bank assets available to creditors in case of insolvency, the legislature made provision for the creation of what is called “Depositors’ final settlement fund.” This fund is not the property of insolvent banks. It is a trust fund created’ for the benefit of unpaid depositors
Reversed.