14 N.J. Misc. 656 | N.J. | 1936
The defendant moves to strike the complaint in the above entitled cause on the grounds that the contracts upon which the suit is brought are ultra vires as to all the parties; they are contrary to public policy; illegal because they induce a breach of trust; they were made without a valuable consideration and that the complaint is framed so as to embarrass and delay a fair trial. The complaint contains three counts and annexed thereto are three writings referred to as contracts and exhibits. The suit is based on those contracts. The three counts are similar in legal effect and a reference to the first will answer for the purpose of deciding the motion. It is alleged that on July 8th, 1931, the plaintiff was and still is a banking corporation existing and conducting business by virtue of the laws of New Jersey concerning trust companies with its main office and branches in the county of Hudson. On the date above mentioned and up to the time possession thereof was taken by the commissioner of banking and insurance, the defendant was likewise a banking corporation with its place of business in the city of Hoboken and existing and conducting business under the same laws as the plaintiff. The parties in the case, as well as all other banks hereinafter mentioned, are banking corporations exercising all the powers necessary to carry on the business of banking in all of its branches with such incidental and necessary powers as are appropriate and consistent with the expressed powers granted in their respective certificates of incorporation. All of those banks are referred to in the contracts and complaint as the Hudson county group. The complaint contains the allegations that the county of Hudson “is socially a unitary, integrated, urban community of dense population;” that on July 8th, 1931, and for a long time theretofore and thereafter occurred a nationwide depression that affected Hudson county and as a result the Hudson county group, which included the parties to this suit as well as twenty-six other banks, reasonably apprehended that there had been created in the depositors of the group an apprehension and fear that the banks mentioned were not safe depositories and that upon an additional bank failure in the county of Hudson there would be a demand by depositors to imme