Hale v. Lewis

Citations

• 181 U.S. 473
• 21 S. Ct. 677
• 45 L. Ed. 959
• 1901 U.S. LEXIS 1382

Syllabus

<p>A statute of Wisconsin required building and loan associations to deposit with the state treasurer securities to a certain amount, to be held in trust for the benefit of local creditors. The receiver of a Minnesota building and loan association, which had made the deposit required by the Wisconsin statute, prayed that such securities might be turned over to him, and the proceeds distributed among all the shareholders of the association, wherever they might reside, upon the ground that the association had no authority to pledge such securities; that such pledge operated to prefer the Wisconsin shareholders over the other shareholders of the association, and was a violation of the contract clause of the Constitution. The Supreme Court held that the contract clause of the Constitution could not be invoked to release these securities from the operation of the statute, as the stockholder's had waived their right to insist upon the constitutional objection by the voluntary act of the board of directors, which was binding upon them, in making the deposit with the state treasurer under the statute. Held: That this was a non-Federal ground broad enough to support the judgment, and the writ of error must be dismissed.</p>