Easton v. Iowa

In 1898, in the district court of Winneshiek county, state of Iowa, James H. Easton was indicted, tried, and found guilty, and sentenced to imprisonment in the penitentiary of Iowa at hard labor for a term of five years, under the provisions of a statute of that state, for the offense of having received, as president of the First National Bank of Decorah, Iowa, a deposit of $100 in money in said bank, at a time when the bank was insolvent, and when such insolvency was known to the defendant.

At the trial it was contended, on behalf of the defendant, that the statute of Iowa, upon which the indictment was found, did not, and was not intended to, apply to national banks, organized and doing business under the national bank acts of the United States, or to the officers and agents of such banks; and that, if the state statute should be construed and held to apply to national banks and their officers, the statute was void in so far as made applicable to national banks and their officers. Both these contentions were overruled by the trial court, and thereupon an appeal was taken to the supreme court of the state of Iowa, and by that court, on April 12, 1901, the judgment of the district court was affirmed. The cause was then brought to this court by a writ of error allowed by the Chief Justice of the supreme court of Iowa.

Messrs. H. T. Reed, Charles F. Brown, C. W. Reed, and John J. Crawford for plaintiff in error.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 221-224 intentionally omitted]

Mr. Charles W. Mullan for defendant in error.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 224-227 intentionally omitted]

Mr. Justice Shiras delivered the opinion of the court: