Roth, Attorney General of Michigan, v. Delano, Comptroller of the Currency, et al. (338 U.S. 226)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided November 7, 1949 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 338 U.S. 226 · 70 S. Ct. 22
- Decided
- November 7, 1949
- Term
- October Term 1949
- Vote
- 8–0
- Majority author
- Justice Jackson (R.H.)
- Issue area
- Judicial Power
- Disposition
- Vacated and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Jackson delivered the opinion of the Court. The First National Bank — Detroit closed its doors in 1933 and, in its liquidation, dividends on proved claims, small in average but large in the aggregate, have remained for some years in the hands of the federal liquidators, unclaimed by their owners. Since this national banking institution was located in the State of Michigan, Attorneys General of that State have made persistent efforts at different stages of the liquidation to establish a right in the State to escheat the unclaimed dividends. Latest of these was this action, brought by the Attorney General against the Comptroller of the Currency of the United States and the Receiver of the First National Bank— Detroit, for a declaratory judgment that the Michigan discovery and escheat statute (Michigan Compiled Laws, 1929, Mason’s 1940 Cum. Supp., c. 263), as amended by the statute known as Act 170, Public Acts of Michigan for 1941, applies to unclaimed dividends on claims duly proved in the liquidation. The Court of Appeals held the state statute ineffective as “an unlawful interference with the liquidation of a national bank upon the same principles and authority fully discussed in our previous opinions.” It affirmed the District Court in dismissing the action “on the merits,” adopting the “settled doctrine” of its own prior adjudications. 170 F. 2d 966. However,…
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