Pomeroy's Lessee v. State Bank of Indiana, 68 U.S. 23 (1863)

U.S. Supreme Court

Pomeroy's Lessee v. State Bank of Indiana, 68 U.S. 1 Wall. 23 23 (1863) Pomeroy's Lessee v. State Bank of Indiana

68 U.S. (1 Wall.) 23

ERROR TO THE CIRCUIT COURT

FOR THE DISTRICT OF INDIANA

Syllabus

Where the charter of a bank provided that the bank should itself continue till January 1, 1859; with a proviso that all banking powers should cease after January 1, 1857, "except those incidental and necessary to collect and close up business;" a motion, in 1862, to dismiss a writ of error in which the bank was defendant was refused.

A statute of Indiana passed in 1834, enacted as follows:

"That there shall be and is hereby created and established a state Bank, to be known and styled the 'State Bank of Indiana,' and shall continue as such until the first day of January, eighteen hundred and fifty-nine."

The charter further provided that all banking powers should cease after the first day of January, 1857, "except those incidental and necessary to collect and close up its business."

In 1849, the bank being in possession of certain real estate, was sued in ejectment, and the suit, in December, 1862, being still pending on writ of error in this Court, which writ had been allowed in December, 1861, H. W. Chase, Esquire, signing himself Attorney for the State Bank of Indiana, in the Circuit Court for the District of Indiana, asked for the abatement of the writ upon the following suggestion, to-wit:

"That since the trial of the above entitled cause in the Circuit Court for the District of Indiana, and before the prosecution of the writ of error in this behalf -- to-wit, on the first day of January, A.D. 1859 -- the said State Bank of Indiana, named as defendant in error in said cause, being a corporation created and organized in the State of Indiana by the authority of an act of the legislature thereof, was dissolved and ceased to exist as such corporation, by reason of the expiration of the charter granted to said State Bank of Indiana. "

Page 68 U. S. 25

MR. JUSTICE WAYNE delivered the opinion of the Court:

I am instructed by the Court to announce it to be its opinion that there can be no abatement of the case upon the counsel's suggestion, as it is declared in the charter of the bank, that though its charter should continue as such until the first day of January, 1859, and that all its banking powers should cease after the first day of January, 1857; that it should have all the "necessary and incidental powers to collect and close up its business," within which we deem the rights of the plaintiff in this Court to be comprehended.

Motion refused.