Weekly Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1853-1861, 1855-05-31
Kentucky Trust Company Cases De-
cid ed

The cases of several plaintiffs against the
Kentucky Trust Company Bank, some dozen
separate actions, involving the same question,
were decided by Judge StOrer.
The plaintiffs were bill-holders of the
Bank, a corporation created by the Legisla-
ture of another State, and there transacting its
business at the time the bills were issued
The defendants object to a recovery on all
bills below the denomination of SO, claim
ing that the act of MAY, 1854, To prohibit the
circulation of foreign bank bills, embraces the
several rights of action and that under that
it must be held no remedy could be given in
the Courts of Ohio. The bills were pur-
chased after the lst of October, when the law
went into operation; some were borrowed
and afterwards paid for, but generally they
were bought at a large discount, and at the
time of the purchase the Bank had suspend
ed, and refused to redeem its notes.
The Court conceived the end of the statute
was to keep out of circulation foreign bills,
and substitute our own for commercial pur-
poses; and this end would require such con-
structiOn of the provision as would not de-
prive bona tide holder of the foreign bill OF
his legal right to dispose of his property
And if party having them when the statute
took effect could not be deprived of his title,
and might sustain an action for the full value
of the notes, it was difficult to conceive why
he may not impart them to a third person
for value, to effect the same object. the
notes were not in circulation at the time they
were purchased, and had not been for some
weeks previous, the value had deprecated
some thirty or forty per cent, the holder:
could not send the paper home for redemp-
ton, that would be fruitless effort-and
must they retain them, subject to the con
tingences of future loss, when disposing o.
| them at their current value, may save por
ton of their property? The Court thought
they might well permit recovery in this &C
ton, without doing violence to the spirit o.
objects of the statute; and the view they tool
seemed to them consistent with the forme
| legislation of this State on the subject of bank
and banking. - -
Several laws on the subject were here re
ferred to by the Court, whichthey recognized
as parts of the same system, the object bein!
from time to time to prohibit the introduc
ton of this species of foreign bank paper
but not to forbid the purchase and sale o
it for what it was worth, or to provide tina
the corporation who issued it should escap
responsibility in consequence of a munich
pal regulation on the part of the State itself
as to the kind of currency it would admit il
the ordinary commerce of the day. All thes
statutes were in force when the act which
was alleged precludes recovery in this actor
was passed, and though the Court felt bount
to give to this latter act all the effect to whic
it was entitled, constituting it in connection
with the other statutes still on the statut
book, they were satisfied it could not hav
been the object of the Legislature to includ
within their prohibition case like the pres
ent A different construction would operat
as legal attainder, and destroy the propert
of bill holder if he attempted to convert
into its present value, and release foreig
bank from the redemption of its bills. Thes
notes were still valuable for all the purposes c
collection, and as evidences of debt; and
was the clear conviction of the Court tina
the plaintiffs were entitled to Judgment o
all that had been offered in vidence.-Cn
ci,lfdti Commercial