Commonwealth v. Dollar Savings Bank

Citations

• 259 Pa. 138
• 102 A. 569
• 1 A.L.R. 1048
• 1917 Pa. LEXIS 531

Syllabus

<p>Constitutional law — Constitution of United Stales, Fourteenth Amendment — Constitution of Pennsylvania, Article I, Section 10; Article III, Sections 16 and 21 — Property rights — Payment of money by State without appropriation — Limitation of action against corporation — Banks and banking — Deposits — Failure to demand money within thirty years — Payment to State■ — Depositor’s right against State — Contract subject to statute — Act of April 17, 1872, P. L. 62 — Validity—Act of May 11, 1909, P. L. 519 — Affidavits of defense — Insufficient averments.</p> <p>1. Every sovereign state has jurisdiction to take charge of apparently abandoned or unclaimed property.</p> <p>2. The Act of April 17, 1872, P. L. 62, providing that “where any depositor with any savings fund, savings institution or savings bank whatsoever, or his legal representatives, shall omit to make any demand for the amount deposited by him, or for any part thereof, for the space of thirty years after the last deposit or payment was made by or to him”......such funds shall be paid by the bank to the State and thereafter the depositor may recover same from the State, does not violate the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, or the 10111 Section of Article I of the Constitution of Pennsylvania in that it deprives a person of property without due process of law, the rights of the depositor being amply protected by giving him a cause of action against the Commonwealth, which, because of its power of taxation, is always solvent and the best of security.</p> <p>3. A court will never heed objections to the constitutionality of an act of assembly unless the complainants 5re affected by the particular feature alleged to be in conflict with the Constitution.</p> <p>4. In an action by the Commonwealth against a banking institution to recover deposits in its hands after thirty years have elapsed from the last addition to or payment therefrom it will be presumed, in the absence of an averm