Prudential Trust Co.'s Assignment

Citations

• 223 Pa. 409
• 72 A. 798
• 1909 Pa. LEXIS 549

Syllabus

<p>Corporations — Trust company — Depositors—Insolvency—Preference in favor of depositors — Acts of April 26, 1844, P. L. 419, April 16, 1850, P. L. 477, May 13, 1876, P. L. 161, and May 8, 1907, P. L. 192 — Assignment for creditors.</p> <p>1. In the absence of legislation perferring certain creditors no such preference exists.</p> <p>2. The question whether the depositors of an insolvent trust company-are entitled to preference over other general creditors in the distribution of assets, depends on the existence of legislation giving such preference. In the absence of such legislation no preference exists.</p> <p>3. The Acts of April 26, 1844, P. L. 419, April 16, 1850, P. L. 477, and May 13,1876, P. L. 161, giving a preference to depositors in banks of issue, or those of discount and deposit, do not apply to trust companies incorporated for a different purpose and expressly denied by statute the right to engage in the business of banking.</p> <p>4. The relation between a bank and its depositors is one of debtor and creditor, and not one of trustee and cestui que trust.</p> <p>5. By a deed of assignment for the benefit of creditors the equitable ownership of the assigned property passes to the creditors. Each creditor owns such a proportional part of the whole as the debt due him bears to the aggregate of the indebtedness. The extent of the interest of a creditor is fixed by the deed of trust which also fixes the time to which the several claims must be referred for adjustment and not the date of the decree of distribution. The creditor having thus a fixed and vested interest as of the date of the assignment, it cannot be reduced to his prejudice by subsequent legislation, or otherwise, without interfering with a vested legal right.</p> <p>6. The Act of May 8,1907, P. L. 192, giving a preference to depositors over other creditors in the distribution of the assets of an insolvent trust company, does not apply to the creditors whose rights accrued by an assignment for