Article Text
CONSERVATOR OF SECAUCUS BANK SUED Toledo Concern, Collection on School Bond Coupons Held Up, Files Suit. Contending the First National Bank of Secaucus was merely trustee in collecting $761.25 on Secaucus school bond coupons, Prudden & Company, of Toledo, Ohio, has brought suit in Chancery Court to compel William Hilbert, Jr., conservator of the bank, to pay that amount with interest. On Feb. 24, 1933 the Toledo concern sent its coupons to the Secaucus bank with instructions to collect the sum when it became due March and to send the proceeds at once to Toledo. The coupons were accompanied by instructions to the bank that "collections are to be considered a trust fund and are not to be co-mingled as deposit with other funds of the collecting agency. The court is told the bank was the sole designated agent of the Township of Secaucus for the purpose of paying the coupons and the coupons on their face, pay. able only at the bank. No option rested in the holder of the bonds to choose the agency. The bank collected the money March 1, by charging it against the proper account funds deposited by Secaucus on March The bank suspended business March and under the Bank Conservation Act of March 9, Hilbert, cashier of the bank, was named The complainant insists the bank had no right to retain the money nor to mingle it with funds and that the conservator should be required to pay at once. The defense contends that the moneys were actually co-mingled and the charging of the sum against the town funds mere keeping entry. It points out that the conservator was not named until March 19 and that when he took over the bank the already had been co-mingled so that it is impossible for him to extract the amount belonging to the corporation. After hearing long argument by by counsel for both sides, Chancellor James F Fielder has directed the filing of briefs.
