United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

First National Bank v. Missouri, 263 U.S. 640 (1924)

First National Bank in St. Louis v. Missouri

No. 252

Argued May 7, 1923

Restored to docket for reargument May 21, 1923

Reargued November 21, 22, 1923

Decided January 28, 1924

263 U.S. 640

Syllabus

1. National banks are subject to state laws that do not interfere with the purposes of their creation, tend to destroy or impair their efficiency as federal agencies, or conflict with the laws of the United States. P. 656.

2. National banks can exercise only the powers expressly granted by federal statutes and such incidental powers as are necessary to the conduct of the business for which they are established. Id.

Page 263 U. S. 641

3. Under the National Bank Law, power to establish branches is withheld. P. 263 U. S. 657. Rev.Stats. §§ 5134, 5190, 5138.

4. The power cannot be sustained as an incidental power, under Rev.Stats., § 5136, for the mere multiplication of places where the powers of a bank may be exercised is not a necessary incident of the banking business, and, moreover, a power which the statute, by fair construction, denies, cannot exist incidentally. P. 263 U. S. 659.

5. A state statute prohibiting branch banks is valid in application to a national bank, for it does not frustrate the purpose for which the bank was created, or interfere with the discharge of its duties to the government, or impair its efficiency as a federal agency. Id.

6. The prohibition may be enforced by the state by such form of procedure as the state may deem appropriate -- in this case, by an information in the nature of quo warranto. P. 263 U. S. 660.

297 Mo. 397 affirmed.

Error to a judgment of the Supreme Court of Missouri ousting the plaintiff in error from operating a branch bank in a proceeding in the nature of quo warranto instituted by the state at the information of her Attorney General. For the order restoring the case to the docket for reargument, see 262 U.S. 732.

Page 263 U. S. 655