The Banking Law (L. 1893, ch. 689), § 52.

time of their election and during their continuance in office. All vacancies in the office of director shall be filled by election by the stockholders; but vacancies not exceeding one-third of the whole number of the board may be filled by the directors then in office, and the directors so elected may hold their offices until filled by the stockholders at a special or annual meeting. A bank, at any annual meeting for the election of directors, provided notice thereof be given in the notice of the annual meeting, may, by a majority of all of the votes of the stockholders of such bank fix or change by resolution the number of directors, not less than five nor more than a certain number to be named in said resolution, which such bank may have; which number, when so fixed, shall be the lawful number of directors of such bank until again changed. Certified copies of all resolutions fixing or changing the number of directors under this section shall be immediately filed in the banking department. One of the directors, to be chosen by the board, shall be the president of the board; and if the certificate of incorporation or the by-laws do not prescribe the number of directors necessary to constitute a quorum, and makes no provision for determining the same, the directors may fix the number necessary to constitute a quorum for the transaction of business, which shall not be less than five, with the same effect as if such number was prescribed in the certificate of incorporation. Whenever the articles of association of any bank organized prior to the first day of January, eighteen hundred and ninety-two, or the certificate of incorporation of any bank organized after that date, shall prescribe a different qualification for directors than such as are prescribed in this section, the qualification of such directors may be changed so as to comply with the provisions of this section in the manner prescribed for a change of the number of directors under section twenty-one of the stock corporation law. (Amended by L. 1900, ch. 89; L. 1900, ch. 240, and L. 1902, ch. 145, in effect March 13, 1902.)

§ 52. Individual liability of stockholders. (C. & G. Gen. Laws, p. 288.)

Effect of section. The above section imposes upon all stockholders of State banks the liability prescribed by the above section, whether such stockholders became such before or after the enactment of the Banking Law in 1892. Hagmayer v. Alten, 36 Misc. 59, 72 N. Y. Supp. 623.

The Banking Law (L. 1892, ch. 689), §§ 113, 114, 115.

§ 113. Repayment of deposits; regulations; limitations. (C. & G. Gen. Laws, p. 322.)

Payment to foreign administrator.

A savings bank is not protected

by the payment of a deposit to a foreign administrator where letters of administration have been issued to an administrator in the county where such bank is located. It is the duty of the bank to inquire whether letters have been issued by the surrogate of its own county. Maas v. German Sav. Bank, 36 Misc. 154, 72 N. Y. Supp. 1068.

Rules and regulations.— Rules and regulations prescribed by a savings bank for the payment of money deposited in such bank when communicated to, and assented to by, the depositors constitute the contract between the parties. Where one of such rules provides that the bank will endeavor to prevent frauds, it is the duty of the bank officials to exercise ordinary care and diligence in making payments, when facts and circumstances are brought to the knowledge of the bank which are calculated and ought to excite suspicion and inquiry of ordinarily careful bank officials. A failure to institute such an inquiry is negligence and deprives the bank of protection under the rules and regulations. So where signatures to orders for the payment of money are so unlike the signature in the bank signature book that the dissimilarity is easily discernible, the failure to so discern it is evidence of negligence. Kelly v. Buffalo Savings Bank, 88 App. Div. 374, N. Y. Supp.

§ 114. Deposits of minors and trust deposits. (C. & G. Gen. Laws, p. 324.)

Deposit in trust. A deposit made by "Helen C. Pratt in trust for Freddie Hemenway Robinson," which was afterwards transferred to a new account headed "Helen C. Pratt in trust for Freddie H. Robinson. Note Not to be paid to F. H. R. until he is 30 years of age." Helen C. Pratt also signed a paper containing a statement that "After my death the balance then due on said account is not to be payable to said Freddie H. Robinson until he is thirty years of age." It was held that a legal trust in favor of Freddie H. Robinson was created at the time of and by the original deposit. Robinson v. Appleby, 69 App. Div. 509, 75 N. Y. Supp. 1.

$115. Wife witness against husband; claimants may be impleaded. (C. & G. Gen. Laws, p. 325.)

Provisions of section not mandatory. The provisions of section 115 of the Banking Law do not make it mandatory upon the court to make the order of interpleader upon application; it is left discretionary with the court to grant or refuse the application. The language of the statute is that the court, in which the action is pending may, on petition of the savings bank, make the order where someone not a party to the action claims the same fund. Steiner v. East River Sav. Inst., 60 App. Div. 232, 70 N. Y. Supp. 223.

The Banking Law (L. 1892, ch. 689), §§ 116.

Depositor's administrator as party defendant; effect of answer before application.—Where a depositor's administrator claimed a savings bank deposit standing in the name of his intestate, before an action was brought by the plaintiff to recover the deposit under an alleged gift from the intestate, the administrator should be joined as a party defendant upon the application of the bank. The fact that in such action the bank answered denying possession of the amount claimed, so as to escape a default, before moving to have such administrator made a party defendant, does not affect the bank's right to relief. Quinn v. Bank for Savings of City of New York, 86 N. Y. Supp. 285.

Application for order of interpleader.- Where there are adverse claimants to a fund deposited in a savings bank, the bank is entitled to. an order making such claimants parties defendant thereto, without proof supporting the validity of the claim of such claimant. The granting of the order is within the discretion of the court to be exercised when the facts of the particular case seem to demand it. v. Auburn Savings Bank, 78 App. Div. 22, 79 N. Y. Supp. 91.

McGuire

§ 116. Savings bank investments. bank investments. Subdivision 4, as amended by L. 1893, ch. 440, and L. 1895, ch. 813, amended by L. 1903, ch. 328, in effect May 6, 1903, as follows:

4. In the stocks or bonds of any city, county, town or village, school district bonds and union free school district bonds issued for school purposes, or in the interest bearing obligations of any city, county, town or village of this state, issued pursuant to the authority of any law of the state for the payment of which the faith and credit of the municipality issuing them are pledged.

Subdivision

§ 116. Savings bank investments. bank investments. 5, as amended by L. 1896, ch. 454; L. 1897, ch. 386, amended by L. 1902, ch. 598, in effect April 15, 1902, as follows:

Subdivision 5. In the stocks or bonds of the following cities: Boston, Worcester, Cambridge, Lowell, Fall River, Springfield and Holyoke, in the state of Massachusetts; Saint Louis, in the state of Missouri; Cleveland, Cincinnati and Toledo, in the state of Ohio; Detroit and Grand Rapids, in the state of Michigan; Providence, in the state of Rhode Island; New Haven and Hartford, in the state of Connecticut; Portland, in the state of Maine; Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Allegheny, Reading and Scranton, in the state of Pennsylvania; Minneapolis and Saint Paul, in the state of Minnesota; Des Moines, in the state of Iowa; Milwaukee, in the state of Wisconsin; Louisville, in the state of Kentucky; Paterson, Trenton, Newark and Camden, in the state of New Jersey: Baltimore, in the state of Maryland; Los Angeles, in the state of California. If at

The Banking Law (L. 1892, ch. 689), § 116.

any time the indebtedness of any of said cities, less its water debt and sinking fund, shall exceed seven per centum of its valuation for purposes of taxation, its bonds and stocks shall thereafter, and until such indebtedness shall be reduced to seven per centum of the valuation for the purposes of taxation, cease to be an authorized investment for the moneys of savings banks, but the superintendent of the banking department may, in his discretion, require any savings bank to sell such bonds or stocks of said city as may have been purchased prior to said increase of debt. (Amended by L. 1896, ch. 454, L. 1897, ch. 386, and L. 1902, ch. 598, in effect April 15, 1902.)

Subdivision 6, as

$116. Savings bank investments. amended by L. 1898, ch. 236; L. 1899, ch. 386; L. 1900, ch. 42, amended by L. 1902, ch. 440, in effect April 10, as follows:

Subdivision 6. In bonds and mortgages on unincumbered real property situated in this state, to the extent of sixty per centum of the value thereof. Not more than sixty-five per centum of the whole amount of deposits shall be so loaned or invested. If the loan is on unimproved and unproductive real property, the amount loaned thereon shall not be more than forty per centum of its actual value. No investment in any bonds and mortgages shall be made by any savings bank except upon the report of a committee of its trustees charged with the duty of investigating the same, who shall certify to the value of the premises mortgaged or to be mortgaged, according to their best judgment, and such report shall be filed and preserved among the records of the corporation.

Also in the following securities:

(a) The first mortgage bonds of any railroad corporation of this state, the principal part of whose railroad is located within this state, or of any railroad corporation of this or any other state or states connecting with and controlled and operated as part of the system of any such railroad corporation of this state, and of which connecting railroad at least a majority of its capital stock is owned by such a railroad corporation of this state or in the mortgage bonds of any such railroad corporation of an issue to retire all prior mortgage debt of such railroad companies respectively; provided that at no time within five years next preceding the date of any such investment shall such railroad corporation of this state or such connecting railroad corporation respectively have failed regularly and punctually to pay the principal and interest of all its mortgage in

The Banking Law (L. 1892, ch. 689), § 116.

debtedness, and in addition thereto regularly and punctually to have paid dividends upon all its outstanding capita! stock during the preceding five years, at the rate of not less than four per centum per annum; and provided, further, that at the date of every such dividend the outstanding capital stock of such railroad corporation, or such connecting railroad company respectively shall have been equal to at least one-half the total mortgage indebtedness of such railroad corporations respectively, including all bonds issued or to be issued under any mortgage securing any bonds in which such investment shall be made.

(b) The mortgage bonds of the following railroad corporations: The Chicago and Northwestern Railroad Company, Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Company, Michigan Central Railroad Company, Illinois Central Railroad Company, Pennsylvania Railroad Company, Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company, New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company, Boston and Maine Railroad Company, Maine Central Railroad Company, the Chicago and Alton Railroad Company, Morris and Essex Railroad Company, Central Railroad of New Jersey, United New Jersey Railroad and Canal Company, also in the mortgage bonds of railroad companies whose lines are leased or operated or controlled by any railroad company specified in this paragraph if said bonds be guaranteed both as to principal and interest by the railroad company to which said lines are leased or by which they are operated or controlled. Provided that at the time of making any investment authorized by this paragraph the said railroad corporations issuing such bonds. shall have earned and paid regular dividends of not less than four per centum per annum in cash on all their issues of capital stock for the ten years next preceding such investment, and provided the capital stock of any of said railroad corporations shall equal or exceed in amount one-third of the par value of all its bonded indebtedness; and further provided that all bonds authorized for investment by this subdivision shall be secured by a mortgage which is a first mortgage on either the whole or some part of the railroad and railroad property of the company issuing such bonds, or that such bonds. shall be mortgage bonds of an issue to retire all prior mortgage debts of such railroad company.

(c) The mortgage bonds of the Chicago, Milwaukee and Saint Paul Railway Company, and the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway Company, so long as they shall continue to earn and pay