Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 3.djvu/825

 818 FEDERiL BBPOETEE. �6. Bank Dibeotohs — ^Trustees. — Directors of lianks and other moneyed corporations hold the relation to stookholdera, depositors, and cred- itors of trustees to eestui» que trust, and as siicli are personally respon- sible for frauda and losses resulting from gross negligence and inat- tention to the duties of their trust. �In Equity. Demurrer to the Bill. �Thomas G. Jackson and James Neeson, for complainants. �John A. Meredith, John B. Young, and G. G. McRae, for defendants, �Hughes, D. J. The Mutual Building Fund & Dollar Savings Bank of Eichmond suspended payments in Septem- ber, 1873; made an assignaient in liquidation in January, 1874; and was adjudicated a bankrupt by this court on the twenty-sixth of Mareh, 1874. The complainants were ap- pointed in due course bf proceedings as trustees, instead of assignees, in bankruptcy, and brought this bill within the period of two years, limited by law. �The bill is brought against 14 defendants, alleged to have been directors in the years 1872 and 1873. It sets ont a series of acts vitra vires; charges gross negligence and inatten- tion ; alleges great losses of capital and f unds in consequence ; and prays that the directors defendant may be required to make good the losses of the bank alleged to have been sus- tained from the negligence charged. �The case stands and is before me after argument upon the demurrer of the defendants, which, for the purposes of plead- ing, admits as true the allegations of the bill. These allega- tions, which are, in the bill, drawn out in technioal form and detail, are, in substance,' as foUows : The assets of the bank are almost worthless, while its indebtedness amounts to $135,000. The directors kept no minutes of their proceed- ings during the years 1872 and 1873. After the failure, to- ■wit, in October, 1873, the directors, by public newspaper card, invited new deposits, promising to hold them as a special fund to meet checks drawn against it ; and in the same card promised to pay the bank's then existing indebtedness in pro rata instalments, as the bank should collect and realize from ����