People v. Ulster County Savings Institution

The defendant was incorporated as a savings institution by act of the legislature, passed April 12, 1851. Laws of 1851, chapter 152.

It has accumulated up to the commencement of this action deposits to an amount exceeding two millions of dollars. Its business affairs have been managed by thirteen trustees, except that by death and resignations the number at this time is reduced to ■eleven. The treasurer and assistant treasurer were appointed in 1867, and have held their respective offices continuously from that time down to the time of their removal in September and October last, respectively. About the 17th of September, 1891, a defalcation, resulting from the misappropriation and abstraction of its funds on the part of the treasurer and assistant treasurer, was discovered. Thereupon, at the instance of the trustees, the superintendent of the banking department began an official examination of the affairs of the bank, and afterwards the bank was closed and a report of its condition made to the attorney general pursuant to statute. Afterwards, this action was commenced by the attorney general for the dissolution of the bank and the appointment of a receiver, and such proceedings were had that a temporary receiver was appointed, who duly qualified and entered upon the discharge of his duties.

A careful and accurate examination of the affairs of the bank by the superintendent disclosed that on the 1st day of November last its liabilities were $2,474,465.89, and its assets $2,108,547.39, thus leaving a deficiency of $365,918.50. This deficiency is less than fifteen per cent of the liabilities of the bank, and it is now ■claimed and insisted that the bank can resume business as a solvent institution upon a basis of eighty-five per cent of its liabilities, and application is made to this court for permission to do so. ’

This application is made upon petitions on the part of all the trustees of the bank, and of the receiver and by depositors representing upwards of $900,000 of deposits.

The petitions show that the total number of depositors is in the neighborhood of 6,000, and that of those who are not petitioners a large number of depositors represent small amounts, who are widely scattered over Ulster county, some of whom reside in other counties, and also in other states, and that deposits to the amount

A careful study of the situation as presented by the petitions, by the official certificate of the superintendent of the banking department, and by the various arguments and suggestions of counsel, induces in my mind the belief[1] that such a course will be beneficial to all parties in case it is found that there is power in the court to authorize it. Such a course will continue in existence a long established and hitherto useful institution, which has only now been impaired by the extraordinary misconduct of its treasurer and assistant treasurer. It will save to depositors a large amount of their funds, which must necessarily be consumed in expenses in case the action proceeds or the bank is put in liquidation and its assets distributed ratably among its creditors; it will save, moreover, to a large number of persons who are debtors to the institution the loss that cannot be avoided from shrinkage in values, resulting from forced collections of mortgages, and will probably result in assisting to sustain generally the credit of business men who have at this time deposits in the bank.

It has been the policy of this state for a long series of years to permit savings institutions, whose assets from any cause have shrunk below their liabilities, to resume business wherever it could be done upon a solvent basis, and this course.has been uniformly, so far as I have been able to ascertain, recommended by the banking department. In 1879 this course was taken by bank superintendent Henry L. Lamb in the case of the Oswego City Savings Bank, and the supreme court permitted that institution, under like circumstances, to scale down its liabilities to depositors ten per cent, and thereupon to resume business. Since that time the bank has been prosperous and its deposits have steadily increased. In 1883, bank superintendent A. B. Hepburn, in his annual report to the legislature, approved the policy thus pursued by superintendent Lamb. In that report he says: “No one can make a study of the failed savings banks without perceiving how much better it would have been for depositors in many instances had the deposits been scaled so as to render the bank solvent, and they have been allowed to continue business. This department, and the courts, now have bylaw sufficient power over the ten are of office of savings bank managers to secure, the removal of incompetent or unfaithful men. With the funds still in the bands of trustees, under the direction of the court and subject to the supervision of the superintendents, the depositors would have realized much more money, and the expensive management and costly and interminable litigation which succeeds insolvency as the night the day would have been avoided. It seems that our courts now have the power to reduce each individual deposit to an amount sufficient to render an insolvent savings bank solvent, and authorize

Bef erring to the Oswego Savings Bank, he adds: “The eminent success attending the scaling process in the only instance in which it has been tried in this state is a strong practical argument in favor of providing by statute for carrying out what seems to be a law already.”

In 1885, superintendent Willis S. Paine expressed his approval to the legislature, as follows : “ In the single instance in the history of the savings banks of this state in which the scaling process has been resorted to as a possible means of saving depositors from ultimate loss, the experiment has met with such marked success it is probable that in the future this remedy will be applied in preference to placing the affairs of temporarily embarrassed banks in the hands of receivers for liquidation.”

It will thus be seen that the opinion of those most familiar with the savings banks of the state, and whose duty it has been to exercise a supervision over their affairs, so far as the same has been expressed, indicates the propriety of permitting savings institutions to resume business wherever it can be done upon a solvent basis.

The remaining question is one of power. The statute which authorizes the institution of actions like the present provides that “ the court before which such proceedings shall be instituted shall have power to grant such orders, and in its discretion from time to time modify or revoke the same, and to grant such relief and render such judgment as the facts or evidence in the case and the situation of the parties and the interests involved shall seem to require.”

The power thus conferred seems to be sufficient to enable the court to make such orders and such disposition of the institution and its affairs as may appear to be for the best interests of the institution, its creditors and depositors. Savings banks are quite unlike ordinary banks. Commonly banks are business corporations, have-stockholders and paid officers, and conduct their affairs with a view to profit. Their relation to their depositors is in no sense one of trust. They receive deposits to be paid upon the chock or draft of the depositors without interest or addition. Their profits, if any, are distributed among the stockholders, and its losses fall upon them, and their property is subject to sequestration at the suit of any creditor. A savings bank is an institution of quite a different character. Its relation to its depositors is in a large sense one of trust and confidence. It has no slack and no stocleholdcrs. Its depositors are not entitled to draw checks against it. It does not receive deposits to be paid upon demand simply, but for investment on securities taken for the benefit of the depositors. Its assets are held for distribution among its depositors ratably, and its losses fall in like manner upon its depositors, and no creditor or depositor can by diligence in the pursuit of any legal remedy obtain any advantage over any other creditor or depositor. Its profits and its losses fall upon each depositor according to his just proportion, and no depositor has a

The assets, after deducting the necessary expenses, are held ■simply as belonging to and as security for all the deposits. It would seem therefore that no depositor has any just cause of complaint if he is not permitted to receive his deposit in full in case the assets are insufficient to pay all the depositors in full. Nor would the trustees be justified in exhausting or even impairing the assets of the institution in payment in full of diligent depositors, and thereby leaving those who are less vigilant to receive a less sum than would be theirs if a just and ratable distribution were had. Under the circumstances, the assets of the bank being held for all the depositors and the losses sustained by all, and there being no right in any depositor to insist upon the payment of his own claim in full at the expense of others, it is clear that the loss already sustained may and should be thus distributed, and the bank, if possible, permitted to resume business for the benefit of all depositors alike, that in the end each depositor may receive as much as possible.

In the case of the People v. The Mechanics & Traders' Savings Institution, 92 N. Y., 7 , the action was brought by a creditor (other than a depositor) to compel the receiver to pay certain judgments in favor of one Sistare, and it was substantially held that all creditors of savings banks, including depositors, stand upon an equal footing. The court says: “ Upon insolvencj' the assets and property of the corporation is a trust fund for the payment of creditors, and depositors, we think, stand as other creditors, having no greater but equal rights to be paid ratably out of the insolvent estate.”

In the case of Huntington v. Savings Bank, 96 U. S., 388 , speaking of savings banks, the court says: “It is not a commercial partnership, nor is it an artificial being the members of which have property interests in it, nor is it strictly eleemosynary. Its •purpose is rather to furnish a safe depository for the money of those members of the community disposed to intrust their property to its keeping. It is somewhat of the nature of such corporations as church wardens for the conservation of the goods of a parish, the college of surgeons for the promotion of medical science or the society of antiquaries for the advancement of the study of antiquities. Its purpose is a public advantage without any interest in its members.

“It is, like many other savings institutions incorporated in England and in this country during the last sixty years, intended only for provident investment, in which the management and supervision are entirely out of the hands of the parties whose money is at stake, .and which are quasi benevolent, and most useful because they hold out no encouragement to speculative dealing or commercial trading.

“ Yery many such exist in this country. Among the earliest are some iñ Massachusetts, organized under a general law passed in 1834, which contained a provision that the income or profit of all deposits shall be divided among the depositors, with just de

Courts of equity in other states have exercised the power here sought. In the case of the Newark Savings Institution, 28 N. J. Equity, 552, the power to scale down deposits and authorize the resumption of business by savings institutions was distinctly declared and exercised. The chancellor says: “This coui’t has jurisdiction over all trusts, as well where the trust is held by a. corporation as where the trustee is an individual. A savings" institution, such as the petitioner, is a mere trustee. It has no stock. It receives the money of depositors for investment and invests it on securities taken for the general benefit of the depositors. It is merely a large incorporated agency for receiving and loaning money on account of those to whom the money belongs. The interest received upon investments is to be ratably divided among the depositors.

“The depositors (in the absence of fraud on the part of the-managers, from which personal liability would arise) have no recourse whatever for repayment of their principal or interest to anything except the general investments of the institution. The institution now before me was incorporated for the sole purpose of receiving and investing deposits. The design of the legislature in granting the charter was to promote industry and frugality, and preserve and husband the fruit of honest toil. It contemplated no benefit to the managers, but looked only to the security and advantage of the depositors. The trust thus created is a general or public trust. Uo depositor has, under the charter or in equity, any right to any particular security in the hands of the institution for his deposit, more than any other depositor. All the assets, after deducting the necessary expenses, ai’e held as a common fund for the security of all the depositors. It follows that no depositor’ has any reason for complaint if he is not permitted to receive his deposit in full, if there be even any xxncertainty as to whether there will be assets enough to pay all the others in full. It follows also that the institution ought not under sxxch circxnnstances to be permitted to exhaust such of its securities as are immediately convertible into cash without loss in the payment in full of clamorous or alert depositoi’s, and leave for those who are less vigilant, or’ who may be less informed of the situation, securities which are less available and on which such loss may be sustained as that the-latter may fail to realize the full amount due them. In other words, the vigilant depositor ought not to be permitted to devolve-all the losses of the trust on the others who are as much entitled, to payment in full as they are. To insure j'nstice to the helpless-is one of the most valuable prerogatives of this court. Equality in the present case is equity. I have no doxxbt as to the j'urisdic

“ The course now taken in regard to this institution is not without precedent in this court. In the case of the Hoboken Bank for Savings (1874) like measures were taken by me under similar circumstances with salutary effect and most beneficial results to the depositors.”

In 1871 a similar proceeding for scaling down the deposits of a .savings bank was taken in Connecticut. In that case a sum equal to twenty-four per cent, of the deposits then in the bank was .scaled by the trustees themselves, and a joint resolution was subsequently passed by the legislature ratifying their action. Afterwards an action was brought by one of the depositors to recover ■the difference between his deposit and the amount to which i.t was .scaled, and the supreme court, without giving any effect to the resolution of the legislature, held' that the action of the trustees in thus scaling down the deposits was lawful and proper, and that the depositor could not recover. Like proceedings have been had in New Hampshire, where there is a statute authorizing them. In Massachusetts, in the case of Lewis v. Lynn Institution far Savings, 148 Mass., 235 , the rule laid down in the Connecticut case was approved and applied. At page 244 the court says: “But to the depositors themselves the undertaking of the corporation is that it will receive and combine the deposits, and manage .and use them to the best practical advantage according to the judgment of the trustees, and give to the depositors in just proportion among themselves the benefit" of the result of such management. There is no absolute promise to repay to any depositor the full amount of his deposit. Such a promise to one depositor would imply that in case of loss he should be repaid out of the .deposits of others. The promise or undertaking of the corporation is the same to' all. There is no promise to pay one at the ■expense of others. The promise is, in effect, to pay each depositor in full with his dividends, provided the assets are sufficient, and if they are not sufficient, then to pay each one his proportionate share.”

It seems, therefore, that the application now made is supported by the provisions of the statute above quoted, and by well considered adjudications in this and other states. I think the power of the court is clear, and that the present presents a proper case for its exercise.

Application granted.