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exceed the amount required by the law under which it was incorporated by the sum of one hundred thousand dollars for each branch office so opened or maintained. Every trust company and every such. officer or director opening a branch office without such written approval shall forfeit to the people of the state the sum of one thousand dollars for every week during which any branch office shall be maintained without such written approval. No foreign corporation shall have or exercise in this state the power to receive deposits of trust moneys, securities and other personal property from any person or corporation or any of the powers specified in subdivisions one, four, five, six, seven, eight, ten and eleven of this section, nor have or maintain an office in this state for the transaction of, or transact directly or indirectly, any such or similar business.

(Former section 156; R. S., 1598, 1600, 1602, 1603; L. 1887, ch. 546, §§ 11, 21, 28, 35; amended by ch. 660 of 1901.)

See General Corporation Law, §§ 11, 13, 14.

1. This section (former number 156, L. 1893, ch. 696), authorizing trust companies to exercise banking powers merely placed trust companies on an equality with banks as to interest, and did not give trust companies power to discount or purchase paper. Jenkins v. Neff, 186 U. S. 234, 46 L. ed. 1141, 22 Sup. Ct. Rep. 905.

2. A trust company has no power to guarantee the sale of certain corporate stocks at a given price when it has no interest therein other than commissions on the sale. And when the party so guaranteed does not deliver such stocks to the trust there is no part performance so as to make the defense of ultra vires inequitable. Gause v. Commonwealth Trust Co., 55 Misc. 110.

3. This section forbids the loan by a trust company of more than one-tenth of its capital stock to a firm or corporation of which a director is a member. Opinion Atty.-Gen., June 11, 1909.

4. A foreign trust company may not act as trustee in this State for bondholders under a trust mortgage. Opinion Atty.-Gen., August 14, 1907.

5. A trust company has not power to guarantee mortgages given by a third person, or by the trust company as trustee, although it is conceivable that such guarantee might be legal under the general powers of a trust company if done as an incident to other power. Opinion Atty.-Gen., March 13, 1909.

6. In an opinion dated December 19, 1906, the attorney-general held as fol lows on the question whether a trust company can change to a national bank: "Upon the broad proposition, I am clearly of the opinion that a trust company organized under the banking laws of the State of New York and having exercised its powers as such by accepting and executing trusts, and while acting as trustee in the cases prescribed by law, is not authorized to change from a trust company to a national bank and that any attempt on the part of such trust company to so change should be promptly enjoined by the banking department from such action."

7. The superintendent of the banking department issued in May, 1908, the following

"DEPARTMENTAL RULINGS.

"Under an opinion of the attorney-general, it has been held that bonds constituting a part of the capital investment of a trust company cannot be loaned or hypothecated, but must remain in the possession of the company.

"Money borrowed of another financial institution cannot be reported as a deposit, but must be reported as borrowed money or bills payable.'

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"In all reports to the banking department, all the assets of corporations under its supervision should be reported at a fair valuation. Any concealment of assets as well as any concealment of liabilities renders a report untrue.

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The Banking Law as interpreted by various attorneys-general of the State prohibits a State bank of deposit and discount from investing in the stock of private corporations.

"The board of directors or trustees of a corporation subject to the Banking Law must, under opinions of various attorneys-general, be fixed and definite. The number can be changed only upon compliance with the provisions of the statute.

"Under an opinion of the attorney-general, it is held that a loan to a firm or copartnership of which a director of a trust company is a member must be limited to ten per centum of the capital of the trust company making the loan. Loans to a director, including any such firm or copartnership liabilties, cannot exceed ten per centum of the capital of such trust company."

Each trust

§ 187. Additional powers of certain trust companies. company organized under this chapter, and having its principal place of business with in a county containing less than six hundred thousand and over three hundred thousand inhabitants, as appears by the last state or federal enumeration of its inhabitants, and having a capital of five hundred thousand dollars or upwards, and each trust company organized under this chapter, and having its principal place of business within a county containing less than three hundred thousand and over sixty-five thousand inhabitants, as appears by the last state or federal enumeration of its inhabitants, and having a capital of two hundred thousand dollars or upwards, and each trust company organized under this chapter and having its principal place of business within a county containing less than sixty-five thousand and over fifty thousand inhabitants as appears by the last state or federal enumeration and having a capital of one hundred thousand dollars, or upwards, may possess and exercise, in addition to the other powers conferred upon it by this chapter, the power, upon terms and conditions to be prescribed by its by-laws, to receive upon deposit for safe keeping bonds, mortgages, jewelry, plate, stocks, securities and

valuable papers of any kind, and other personal property, for hire, and to let out receptacles for safe deposit of personal property, and each trust company of the class first above specified may also for hire examine titles to real estate, procure and furnish information in relation thereto, and guarantee or insure the title to real estate to persons interested in such real estate or in mortgages thereon against loss by reason of defective title or of other incumbrances upon such real estate; and any trust company specified in this section may be appointed guardian, trustee or administrator, with or without will annexed, on the application or consent of any person acting as such or entitled to such appointment and in the place and stead of such person; or such trust company may be joined with any person so acting or entitled to such appointment; but such appointments shall be made upon such notice, as is required by law, to the persons interested in the estate or fund and on the consent of such of the principal legatees or other persons interested in the estate or fund as the court, surrogate or judge making the appointment shall deem proper. No appointment hereunder shall be deemed to increase the number of persons entitled to full compensation beyond the number so entitled under the terms of the will or deed creating a trust or appointing a guardian or authorized by law. Whenever a person is joined with such trust company in any appointment as guardian, trustee or administrator with or without the will annexed, his appointment may be under such limitation of powers and upon such terms and conditions as to deposit of assets by such person with such trust company or otherwise, and upon such reduced bond or security to be given by him as the court, surrogate or judge making the appointment shall prescribe.

(L. 1893, ch. 337, § 1; L. 1898, ch. 73, § 1; L. 1901, ch. 443, § 1; L. 1902, ch. 360, § 1.)

§ 188. Additional powers, dependent on location. Each trust company organized under this chapter, and having its principal place of business within a town adjoining a city, containing over eight hundred thousand and less than one million inhabitants, according to the last state census, and having a capital of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, or upwards, may possess and exercise in addition to the other powers conferred upon it by this chapter, the

power, upon terms and conditions to be prescribed by its by-laws, to receive upon deposit for safe keeping, bonds, mortgages, jewelry, plate, stocks and valuable property of every kind for hire, and also for hire, to examine titles to real estate, to procure and furnish information in relation thereto, and to guarantee or insure the title to real estate to persons interested in such real estate or in mortgages thereon, against loss by reason of defective title or of other incumbrances of or upon such real estate.

(L. 1896, ch. 851, § 1.)

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§ 189. May be administrator, guardian or trustee. When any trust company is appointed executor in any last will or testament, the court or officer authorized to grant letters testamentary in this state shall, upon the proper application, grant letters testamentary thereon to such corporation. When application is made to any court or officer having authority to grant letters of administration with the will annexed, upon the estate of any deceased person, and there is no person entitled to such letters who is qualified, competent, willing and able to accept such administration, such court or officer may at the request of any party interested in the estate, grant such letters of administration with the will annxed, to any such corporation. Any court or officer having authority to grant letters of guardianship of any infant, may upon the same application as is required by law for the appointment of a guardian of such infant, appoint any such corporation as guardian of the estate of such infant. Any court having jurisdiction to appoint a trustee, guardian, receiver or committee of the estate of a lunatic, idiot or habitual drunkard, or to make any fiduciary appointment, may appoint any such corporation to be such trustee, guardian, receiver or committee, or to act in any other fiduciary capacity. All moneys brought into court by order or judgment of any court of record may be deposited with any such corporation, that has been designated by the comptroller of the state of New York, as provided by the code of civil procedure.

(Former section 157; R. S., 1600, 1601, 1603; L. 1887, ch. 546, §§ 22, 23; L. 1885, ch. 425, § 1; amended by ch. 552 of 1900.)

§ 190. No security required; trust fund debts preferred. - No bond or other security, except as hereinafter provided, shall be required from any such corporation for or in respect to any trust, nor when

appointed executor, administrator, guardian, trustee, receiver, committee or depositary. All investments of money received by any such corporation, and by any trust company chartered by special act, prior to May eighteenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-two, in either of such characters shall be at its sole risk and for all losses of such money the capital stock, property and effects of the corporation shall be absolutely liable, unless the investments are such as the courts recognize as proper when made by an individual acting as trustee, executor, administrator, guardian, receiver, committee or depositary, or such as are permitted in and by the instrument or words creating or defining the trust. If dissolved by the legislature or the court, or otherwise, the debts due from the corporation as such executor, administrator, guardian, trustee, committee or depositary shall have the preference. The court or officer making such appointment may, upon proper application, require any corporation which shall have been so appointed, to give such security as to the court or officer shall seem proper, or upon failure of such corporation to give security as required, may remove such corporation from and revoke such appointment. Such court or officer may make orders respecting such trusts and require the corporation to render all accounts which such court or officer might lawfully require if such executor, administrator, guardian, trustee, receiver, committee or depositary were a natural person. Whenever any such corporation shall be designated by the comptroller of the state of New York as a depositary for funds and moneys paid into court, before receiving any such deposit, it shall give to the people of the state a bond in the form and manner, as provided by section forty-four of this chapter.

(Former section 158; R. S., 1601, 1603; as amended by L. 1885, ch. 425, §§ 1, 3; L. 1887, ch. 546, § 26; L. 1893, ch. 696; L. 1898, ch. 98; L. 1909, ch. 240.) 1. October 12, 1905, the attorney-general held that the corporation acting as executor, administrator, guardian, trustee, receiver, committee or depository can, without any risk whatever, invest in the same kind of securities as those in which savings banks of this State are by law authorized to invest the money deposited therein, and the income derived therefrom, and in bonds and mortgages on unin cumbered real estate worth fifty per centum more than the amount loaned thereon. An investment in any other kind of security would constitute a contingent liability. . .

In the event of depreciation of values, the liability of the corporation would be determined by well settled principles. Judge Haight, now of the court of appeals, has stated these principles aptly in the case of Mills v. Hoffman, 26 Hun, 594, in the following language:

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