Opinion ID: 254329
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Creation of License Fees

Text: 16 Before 1937, the German Reichsbank, under its regulations, assessed and collected a fee in reichsmarks on all drafts drawn against travel mark accounts when such drafts were presented for payment in Germany. This was done independent of the terms and provisions of the various agreements. In 1937 these Reichsbank regulations were cancelled, and new regulations, independent of any requirement imposed by the agreements, became effective, whereby the Reichsbank levied a license fee upon the transfer of funds from a registered mark account to a travel mark account. 4 A similar regulation required a license fee for transfer of registered balances for benevolent remittances. When an American creditor transferred a part of his registered balance into a travel mark account, he was required to pay into a special account in the Manufacturers Trust Company a certain amount of American dollars per 100 marks. Those fees were $4.50 per 100 marks for travel transactions and $3.35 per 100 marks for benevolent remittance transactions during the period here involved. These license fees, collected after May 31, 1941, constituted the corpus of the two accounts, vested by the Attorney General in 1947, which the plaintiffs seek to recover in this action. 17 The Reichsbank regulations also required the registered holder to collect the fee from any subsequent holder of the travel mark account, and the latter, in turn, was required to collect the fee from the ultimate user of the travel marks. Such regulations also provided: (1) the license fee had to be passed on to and paid by the ultimate purchaser of the travel marks as part of the 'global' price at which such marks were sold; (2) the license fees had to be remitted to the 'Reichsbank Standstill Account' of the depository agency (Manufacturers Trust Company in the United States); and (3) the regulations were to remain in effect unless cancelled or amended by the Reichsbank. The holder of the travel mark account, or his agents, in some situations could forward the license fee collected directly to the Trust Company instead of forwarding it to the registered holder. Similar procedure related to marks used for benevolent remittances. The Reichsbank always gave the Trust Company explicit instructions as to the opening of Reichsbank Standstill Accounts.