Year: 1875

ceivership.


The depositors Of the Third Avenue Savings
Bank are not aiding their cause by the want
of harmony that has hitherto distinguished
their meetings. They have generally spent
their time in wrangling discussions, appar-
emily ignorant of the fact that the agents
Of the bank by which they have been de-
frauded are the promoters of the discord-
The public interests involved in this failure
are too great to be frittered away in any such
useless demonstrations. The whole COM
munity, as well as the special depositors in
this bank, is concerned in ascertaining
whether the laws in regard to savings banks
will permit of such operations as those by
which this suspension has been marked.
The Bank Superintendent suffered the Third
Avenue Bank to continue its business long
after he knew it was hopelessly bankrupt
When the bank decided to close its doors
it procured the secret appointment Of
receiver without the knowledge of the de-
positors. This receiver was the secretary
of the bank, the officer and appointee
of the trustees, and had signed and verified
q A<AAoO VI DolAht
showing it to be solvent and enticing new
depositors into its meshes The question is
whether such proceedings are authorized
under the law and whether the Court will
allow such a receiver to hold the property of
the depositors in his hands. In this ques-
those who have been victimized by Mr.. Car
man and his associates in the broken bank


If anything were needed beyond the cir
cumstances connected with his appointment
to convince the Court and the people of the
outrage Of allowing Mr.. Carman to remain q
single day in the position of receiver, it
would be supplied by o pretended meeting
of depositors favorable to his retention al
legged to have been held last week. The
whole affair is q transparent fraud. A few
persons get together with locked doors in
Mr. Carmans Office and undertake to
approve his action and to favor his re-
tention as receiver, without the slightest
reference to the interests and wishes of the
seven thousand eight hundred depositors
who have been victimized by the rotten bank
to the amount of nearly one million five
hundred thousand dollars The proceedings
Of the so-called meeting are clearly de-
signed to influence the Court in favor of Mr..
Carman's retention. They will have q
directly contrary effect, for they betray an
eagerness to prevent the appointment of a
fair, independent receiver, which is, to say
the least, suspicious. Mr.. Carman proves
his own unftness for the position when he
confesses to have signed and verified bank
statement without knowing anything of its
truth or correctness. His ill-timed boast
that he will ''see the fight through" implies
that he recognizes his antagonism to the
victimfzed depositors. There should not as
we have said, be single days delay in his
removal by the Court. He was an officer Of
the broken bank, and, by his own showing, q
reckless and unreliable one. He was APP
pointed receiver by secret, under
hand process, at the instigation of
the trustees without the knowledge
Of the depositors, who knew nothing Of
their danger until the bank doors were
locked, and the assets, books, papers and all
evidences Of fraud, if any frauds have been
perpetrated, were safe in the keeping of the
old secretary of the bank and securely hid
den from sight. Above oil, the property
belongs to the seven thousand eight hundred
depositors whose one million and half of
savings have been enticed from them by Mr..
Carman and his associates. They have a
right to say who shall be the custodian Of
this property for them. The trustees and
officers of the bank have no title to interfere
in the matter. Any capable, honest man
and none other will be appointed by the
Court-can manage and wind up the affairs
Of the bank at least as well as Mr.. Carman-
The anxiety to retain that person in posses
sion is full of suspicion. 1t does not seem
that the Court should have any discretion in
the matter Justice and equity demand Mr..
Carman's removal, while not o single legit-
innate interest can be subserved by his reten-
ton.