Kennedy v. Gibson

Syllabus

<p>1. The 50th section of the National Bank Act of June 3d, 1864 (13 Stat. at Large, 116), which provides that suits under it, in which officers or agents of the United States are parties, shall be conducted by the district attorney of the district, is in so far but directory, that it cannot be set up by stockholders to defeat a suit brought against them by a receiver, under the act, 'which receiver, with the approval of the Treasury Department, and after the matter had been submitted to the Solicitor of the Treasury, had employed private counsel, by whom alone suit was conducted.</p> <p>2. Upon a bill filed under the 50th section of that act,' by a receiver, against the stockholders, where the bank fails to pay its notes, it is indispensable, that action on the part of the comptroller of the currency, touching the personal liability of the stockholders, precede the institution of any suit by the receiver, and the fact must be averred in the bill.</p> <p>8. It is no objection to such a bill properly filed against stockholders within the jurisdiction of the court, that stockholders named in the bill, and avetred in it to be without the jurisdiction, are not made co-defendants.</p> <p>4. Creditors of the bank are not proper parties to such a bill. The receiver . is the proper party to bring suit, whether at law or in equity.</p> <p>6. Suits may be brought' under the -57th section of the act, by any association, as well as against it; though the word “ by ” be omitted in the text of the section. Heading the section by the light of another section of a prior act, on the same general subject, the omission is to be regarded as an accidental one.</p>