Court Opinion

ID: 9810671
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 21:55:52.493212+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:40:08.617695
License: Public Domain

*392Clarkson, J.,
dissenting: It appears in the record that Gurney P. Hood, Commissioner of Banks, “demurred ore terms to the defense on the ground that said answer and appeal failed to state sufficient facts to constitute a valid defense to the assessment.” I cannot agree.
The record imports verity. On it we find that J. T. Chilcutt had 52 shares of stock, of the value of $5,200, in the Greensboro Bank and Trust Company. The corporate name was changed to United Bank and Trust Company. Item 10 of his will was mandatory that this stock “shall be by my executor converted into cash,” and, as trustee, “to be by it loaned or invested at its discretion and the net income paid annually or oftener to the Methodist Protestant Children’s Home, located near High Point, N. C.” The answer, for the purpose of this demurrer ore terms, is taken to be true. It is alleged: “That for thirteen months or more after the death of J. T. Chilcutt, the United Bank and Trust Company, as executor and trustee, failed, refused, and neglected to take any steps whatsoever to convert said stock into cash, or to reinvest or to transfer the stock on the books of the corporation, and as a result of such negligence and such failure, the present defendant is called upon to respond for the liability.”
The bank, as executor, delayed in its positive and directed duty, under the will, for some 13 months. The executor knew, or in the exercise of due care should have known, that the bank- was gradually sinking into insolvency, but by its negligent delay allowed the stock, valued at $5,200, to become perhaps worthless. Now, through the Commissioner of Banks, it levies an assessment of $5,200. The bank was acting in a dual capacity and had a positive duty to perform. I think by its negligence the Commissioner of Banks, who took it cum onere, cannot now levy the assessment. See dissenting opinion in Gurney P. Hood, Commissioner of Banks, v. N. C. Bank and Trust Co. and Margaret E. Brand, ante, 367.