Medina State Bank (Medina, ND)

Article Text

MEDINA STATE BANK SUSPENDS ITS PAYMENTS Ruo OO Bank Follows Crash of Wheelock and Wheelock Knowledge That Insolvent Fargo Firm Backed It Caused Panic Medina, N. D., Jan. 12.-Following the failure of Wheelock & Wheelock, real estate dealers, Fargo, Saturday, a run on the Medina State bank, in which they were heavy stockholders, Monday, caused that institution to suspend payment on its paper. Saturday proceedings were instituted to have a receiver appointed for the real estate firm. This was taken by business men as an indication that the firm was insolvent. The announcement of this action when it reached Medina caused a feeling of uneasiness on the part of the bank depositors who knew that Wheelock & Wheelock were back of the local concern. As soon as the doors opened Monday morning the depositors began flocking to the bank, demanding their money. Till after BOOR the officials of the bank withstood the rush, then were compelled to suspend payment. H. H. Wheelock was president of the bank. C. L. Campbell, vice president; A. W. Schroeder, cashier, and H. D. Crosby, assistant cashier. The deposits in the bank were reported as $52,306.57.

Article Text

RUN ON MEDINA BANK FOLLOWS DISSOLUTION Wheelocks Interested in Concern and Naming of Receiver Causes Alarm. Medina, N. D., Jan. 14.-Following the failure of Wheelock & Wheelock, real estate dealers, Fargo, a run on the Medina State bank, in which they were heavy stockholders, Monday, caused that institution to suspend payment on its paper. Saturday proceedings were instituted to have a receiver appointed for the real estate firm. This was taken by business men as an indication that the firm was insolvent. The announcement of this action when it reached Medina caused a feeling of uneasiness on the part of the bank depositors who knew that Wheelock & Wheelock were back of the local concern. As soon as the doors opened Monday morning the depositors began flocking to the bank, demanding their money. Till after noon the officials of the bank withstood the rush, then were compelled to suspend payment. H. H. Wheelock was president of the bank, C. L. Campbell, vice president; A. W. Schroeder, cashier, and H .D. Crosby, assistant cashier. The deposits in the bank were reported as $52,306.57.

Article Text

SEVERTSON IN CHARGE OF BANK State Examiner Assumes Control of Institution at Medina, N. D. Bismarck, N. D., Jan. 15.-Bank Examiner S. G. Severtson has taken charge of the Medina State bank, at least temporarily, the result of a run on the institution, which followed the failure of the firm of Wheelock & Wheelock of Fargo. H. H. Wheelock of the Fargo firm is president of the Medina bank and the failure of the land concern acused uneasiness in Medina and the demand by depositors for their cash. Considerable money was paid out when the bank officers closed the institution and called on the examiner. The exact status of affairs at Medina is not definitely determined yet. The bank had about $52,000 deposits.

Article Text

FRIDAY, JAN. 16, 1914 North Dakota State News It is reported that a gopher was trapped a few days ago in this state, also that several full grown snakes in active operation just over the line in Minnesota. Following the failure of Wheel ock & Wheelock, real estate dealers, Fargo, N. D. a run on the Medina Stte Bank, in which they were heavy stockholders, Monday caused that institution to suspend payment on its paper. Steamer Cobequid was racked to pieces on Trinity Rock six miles off the port of Maitland. The wreck occurred Tuesday morning in a heavy blizzard. The hundred and eight persons aboar were snatched from death in a thrilling rescue, which was the most brilliant rescue in the annals of the Atlantic coast. Hundreds are dead in the district about Kagoshima, Japan, through an earthquake and volcanic eruptions and tidal wave Monday. Strip of country 80 miles wide is completely buried in ashes. It is said that animals and birds were suffering from an abnormal uneasiness for several days prior to the disturbances. The annual meeting of the North Dakota Association of County Judges will be held in Jamestown on January 21. The address of welcome will be given by Pierre Blewell, mayor of that city. Judge Hanson of Fargo, president of the association, will give the response. Addresses by several prominent members will complete the program. Miss Kathryn Ensey formerly of Valley City and a graduate of the Normal school at that place sang for Madame Melba when the famous prima donna was at Portland, Ore., and was advised by her to prepareo for grand opera singing. She suggested that Miss Ensey come to Paris next summer, where she wolud be glad to see her and help her all she could. Attorney General Miller says that no error has been made in the commutation of the sentence of Joe Remington and his subse-

Article Text

SEVERTSON ASKS REORGANIZATION Hopes to Place the Medina State Bank on Firm Foundation. (Times Special Service) Medina, N. D., Jan. 16.-State Bank Examiner Severtson is still in charge of the Medina State bank which closed Monday when it was unable to withstand a run, and he hopes to bring about the reorganization of the institution. In a statement today Mr. Severtson said the prospect. for reorganiation were good. The bank closed during a run, caused by the failure of the firm of Wheelock & Wheelock of Fargo, who are interested in the bank.

Article Text

Medina to Have New Bank

Medina.-Medina will have a new bank as the result of the state bank examiner taking charge of the affairs of the Medina State bank, after a run brought on by the failure of Wheelock & Wheelock of Fargo, who were interested in the institution. The new bank will open March 1. It will be known as the Farmers' State bank; the incorporators are S. F. Corwin, A, B. DeNault and H. T. Graves.

Article Text

Judge Coffey has appointed Michael Murphy of Jamestown as receiver of the Medina State bank, which recently closed its doors.

Article Text

AROUND THE STATE Drake, Feb. 23.-The commercial club here contemplates building an electric line from Drake to Guthrie and Brush Lake. The club is also looking for a site for the new brick hotel soon to be erected here. Medina, Feb. 23.-Judge Coffey has appointed Michael Murphy of Jamestown as receiver of the Medina State bank which recently closed its doors. He has been here several days engaged in straightening out the defunct bank's tangled affairs. Anamoose, Feb. 23.-At a mass meeting held it was decided by an almost unanimous vote to proceed at once with the campaign of organizing a new county out of McHenry to be formed out of the 24 townships in the south end of the county. The new county will be named Lincoln. McClusky, Feb. 25.-The business men of McClusky, Denhoff and Goodrich are organizing for the purpose of promoting the agricultural interests of Sheridan county. With State Senator J. E. Davis president, and F. F. Finnegan secretary, a petition is being circulated asking the county commissioners to levy a small tax for the purpose of promoting immigration. Mott, Feb. 26.-Upon application of State's Attorney W. A. Carns of Dunn county, Judge Crawford, who is holding a term of district court here for Hettinger county, today granted an order for a jury to be drawn to investigate charges that have been laid against the commissioners of Dunn county, and Attorney Simpson of Dickinson, was directed by the court to assist with the prosecution. The commissioners of Dunn county are said to have refused to build a new court house to replace the one destroyed by fire recently, and since that time the officials have been without quarters except for temporary rooms they have secured about town. Among other charges that are brought in an attempt to remove all three of the commissioners from office is the one where it is alleged they have

Article Text

In the Matter of the Receivership of the Medina State Bank, of Medina, North Dakota, an Insolvent Corpora. tion. Receiver's Notice.

Article Text

Stock-holders May Have to Pay

Jamestown.—Stockholders in the Medina bank face an assessment of 100 per cent upon their stock, under the order of the district court. The bank went to the wall several months ago, and the bank receiver is launching the actions against the stockholders in an effort to make the institution pay out.

Proceedings were held under a state law that gives the bank receiver power to recover from stockholders in cases where banks fail and depositors face losses.

Article Text

RECEIVER OF MEDINA BANK PAYS DIVIDEND Of Twenty-five Per Cent. to Creditors of Defunct Institution. Michael Murphy, the receiver of the Medina State Bank of Medina, North Dakota, has recently mailed checks to all of the creditors of the Medina State bank in payment of a 25 per cent. dividend upon claims filed and allowed by the court. This is in addition to full payment of all preferred claims. The total claims filed aggregated about sixty-five thousand dollars. The Medina State bank failed early in 1914, and Mr. Murphy, president of the Farmers & Merchants National Bank of Jamestown, was appointed receiver by the district court to wind up the affairs of the bank, which affairs were found to be in rather a complicated condition. Since that time the receiver and his attorney, John W. Carr, have been endeavoring to straighten matters out and to reduce the assets to cash. Most of the assets of the bank were found to be slow, and it has taken considerable time to reduce them to money. A considerable portion of the assets are still to be realized upon but are of doubtful value. An assessment of 100 per cent. was levied upon all stockholders of the bank and a considerable portion of this has been collected. The total amount to date paid in dividends exceeds $16,000 and the amounts paid creditors range from 39 cents up to $1,260.08, according to the various amounts of their respective claims.

Article Text

WILL SUE BONDING COMPANY Stutsman County Commissionlety ers Order Action Taken. At a meeting of the county board, which adjourned Tuesday till May 2, the state's attorney was authorized to begin an action against the Dakota Trust company of Fargo to recover the balance of $3,775.22 for which the Dakota Trust company at Fargo is liable under a bond given the county for the deposit of this sum in the Medina State bank. The resolution to begin suit for the recovery of this amount was introduced by Mr. Krekow. All members of the board were present with the exception of Commissioner Murphy, who is absent from the city. The long delay in securing repayment on this bond and the reported intention of the bonding company not to pay the bond until certain litigation over the Medina State bank failure has been settled in the courts, has stirred the commissioners to take action. The general opinion seems to be that the bonding company is trying to have its case against the Medina State bank fought out in the courts at Stutsman county's expense, and there is no reason why the bonding company should not pay up its obligations regardless of the outcome of the other suits brought to recover the securities of the bank alleged to have been wrongfully taken therefrom. The following resolution was adopted: Resolution. Whereas, The County of Stutsman had on deposit with the Medina State Bank at the time of its failure the sum of $5,035.30; and whereas such deposit was protected by a bond for $5,000 given by the Dakota Trust company in favor of the county of Stutsman, and that the sum of $1,260.08 has been received from the receiver of said Medina State bank; Now, Therefore, Be it resolved by the board of county commissioners in regular session assembled that the state's attorney be and hereby is directed to commence an action against the Dakota Trust company to recover the amount still due the county on this deposit.

Article Text

SUIT AGAINST

GOV. HANNA

DISMISSED

JUDGE POLLOCK HOLDS MEDINA BANK RECEIVER FAILED TO PRESENT CASE.

A sweeping vindication from the charges hurled at Governor L B. Hanna, E J. Weiser and the First National Bank of Fargo through the Non-Partisan Leader was made yesterday morning when Judge Charles A Pollock of the district court handed down a decision sustaining the demurrer of the defendants in the case of Michael Murphy of Jamestown, N D., receiver of the Medina State bank. The decision is the outcome of a suit started in Burleigh county to recover $50,000 from the defendants for breach of a contract by which it was claimed the defendants agreed to finance and support the Medina State bank, which was on the verge of insolvency.

No Cause for Action The court holds that, on his own pleadings, the receiver has no cause of action, whatever, against the defendants. The grounds given by Judge Pollock for sustaining the demurrer were: First, that the contract relied upon was ultra vires (beyond the power of the bank to make) and wholly void; and second, that the contract in the complaint sued upon was void and of no effect because it was wholly uncertain and indefinite in its terms. The effect of the decision is that the receiver of the Medina State bank has no claim whatever and the action is thereby dismissed

Political Charges Negatived Charges made by the Nonpartisan Leader that E. J. Weiser of the First National bank, and L. B. Hanna, chairman of the state banking board, looted the Medina bank are negatived by the decision, which holds that the dealings of the defendants with the bank were legal and proper and that the receiver under his own statement in his complaint has no cause of action against them. Attorneys in the case were O. J. Seiler and John Carr of Jamestown, with the firm of Purcell, Divet & Perkins of Wahpeton, for the receiver; Watson, Young & Connty for the defendants.

Further Charges By the Leader. Further charges made by the Non-partisan Leader seemingly solely for political purposes were that the Medina bank had long been known by the state bank examiner to be in an unsound condition and that the failure was directly due to the failure a few days before of Wheelock & Wheelock, a Fargo real estate firm, which owned the bank's stock. The Leader further contended that the big banks got the money; that the First National bank of Fargo, of which L. B. Hanna was then a director, failed to keep the promise which its cashier, Gordon H. Nesbit, had made under oath, and that the First National bank a mocth before the failure had carried on its books an entry designed to make it appear that the surplus of the Medina bank was up to legal requirenients when it was not, also that Governor Hanna in his private capacity ag a banker knew the condition of the bank,

Article Text

Fargo, sustaining the demurrer of the defendants in the action brought by Michael Murphy, receiver of the Medina State bank as plaintiff, against the First National bank of Fargo, and Governor L. H. Hanna as a director, and E. J. Weiser, president, will probably be appealed.

The court sustained the demurrer on the grounds that the First National bank had not the power to enter into a contract to keep the Medina bank supplied with money and prevent its failure, as alleged by which the Fargo bank was allowed

Article Text

HANNA LOSES ROUND IN FAMOUS MEDINA BANK LITIGATION Former Governor L. B. Hanna and the First National bank of Fargo lost a round in the famous Medina bank case litigation this afternoon, when the supreme court of North Dakota reversed the Cass county district court order sustaining a demurrer to the complaint, filed by Receiver Murphy, and remanded the case to the lower court. This means that the case will come up for trial on its merits in the Cass county court. The action arises out of the closing of the Medina bank. The receiver contends that former Governor Hanna and the First National bank of Fargo failed to come to the rescue of the institution as they had planned.

Article Text

Supreme Court Decisions

From Cass County. Michael Murphy, receiver of the Medina State bank, plaintiff and appellant, vs. L. B. Hanna, E. J. Weiser, and First National bank of Fargo, a corporation, defendants and respondents.

Syllabus: 1) In an action to recover damages for breach of an alleged executory contract to loan money where the complaint alleges no facts from which it can reasonably be inferred that the borrower had agreed to borrow any sum of money, or if borrowed, to retain the same for any period of time, paying interest therefor, the complaint states no cause of action for breach of a bilateral executory contract.

(2) A complaint which alleges the understanding, with which, and the circumstances in which, parties were negotiating for a loan of money from one to the other, and where it further alleges acts done in pursuance of such understanding, which acts involve a detriment sustained by the one desiring to borrow money, which detriment is incurred in reliance upon the promise of the other to loan, the complaint states a cause of action for a breach of a unilateral contract obligation.

(3) Where a complaint alleges that it was agreed between plaintiff and defendants that plaintiff should turn over to the defendants bills receivable approved by them, which they were to hold as security for a loan of money to plaintiff to enable plaintiff to continue its business, thus preventing the sacrifice of its assets and the loss of its good will, and that, in pursuance of this agreement plaintiff turned over to the defendants its bills receivable selected by them, of the alleged value of about $20,000, which bills receivable are alleged to have constituted the assets of the plaintiff that could be speedily converted into cash, and where it is alleged that defendants thereupon repudiated their agreement and refused to advance any money to plaintiff, such complaint states a cause of action for breach of contract.

(4) Where a contractual obligation results from the conduct of parties in pursuance of an understanding or agreement, which understanding or agreement by reason of lack of mu-

Article Text

CASES DECIDED FROM STUTSMAN COUNTY Syllibus in the Medina Bank Case. Following is the syllabus of the supreme court's decision in the Medina State Bank case: Michael Murphy, Receiver of the Medina State Bank, plaintiff and appellant, vs. L. B. Hanna, E. J. Weiser, and First National Bank of Fargo, a corporation, defendants and respondents. Syllabus: (1) In an action to recover damages for breach of ar alleged executory contract to' loan money where the complaint alleges no facts from which it can reasonably be inferred that the borrower had agreed to borrow any sum of money, or if borrowed, to retain the same for any period of time, paying interest therefor, the complaint states no cause of action for breach of a bilateral executory contract. (2) A complaint which alleges the understanding with which, and the circumstances in which, parties wore negotiating for a loan of money from one to the other, and where it further alleges acts done in pursuance of such undertaking, which acts involve a detriment sustained by the one desiring to borrow money, which detriment is incurred in reliance upon the promise of the other 'to loan, the complaint state3 a cause of action for a breach of a unilateral contract obligation. (3) Where a complaint alleges that it was agreed between plaintiff and defendants that plaintiff should turn over to the defendants bills receivable approved by them, which they were to hold as security for a loan of money to plaintiff to enable plaintiff to continue its business, thus preventing the sacrifice of its assets and the loss of its good will, and that, in pursuance of this agreement, plaintiff turned over to the defendants its. bills receivable selected by them, of the alleged value. of about $20,000, which bills receivable are alleged to have constituted the assets of the plaintiff that could be speedily converted into cash, and where it is alleged that defendants thereupon repudiated their agreement and refused to advance any money to plaintiff, such complaint states a cause of action for breach of contract. (4) Where a contractual obligation results from the conduct of parties in persuance of an understanding or agreement. which understanding or agreement by reason of lack of mutuality of obligation does not amount to a mutually hind ing bilateral contract, it sential that the obligation shall be capable of precise measurement in advance. Its extent is controlled by the standard of reasonableness un-