deposit

The modern deposit grew out of the older form of deposit in which the fund was held separate and intact, and the sole purpose of the deposit was safe-keeping. Safe-keeping is still a very important function of deposit banking; and from the point of view of most depositors the chief one.

A naked bailment of goods to be kept for the depositor without reward, and to be returned when he shall require it. Jones, Bailm. 36, 117; 9 Mass. 470. A bailment of goods to be kept by the bailee without reward, and delivered according to the object or purpose of the original trust. Story, Bailm. § 41. A contract by which one of the contracting parties gives a thing to another to keep, who is to do so gratuitously, and obliges himself to return it when he shall be requested. To constitute a deposit, there must be (1) an actual delivery of the property; (2) the object must be to keep the property for the owner; (3) the custody must be gratuitous; (4) the deposit must be with another than the owner; and (5) there must be a voluntary undertaking by the bailee. Story, Bailm. §§ 55-60. Deposits are divided in the civil law into necessary and voluntary. (1) Necessary deposits are those made upon some sudden emergency, as of fire or shipwreck. (2) Voluntary deposits are those made, in the absence of necessity, by contract of the parties. This distinction was unknown at common law. Deposits are again divided in the civil law into simple deposits and sequestrations. (3) Simple deposits are those made by one or more persons having a common interest. (4) Deposit!) by sequestration are by persons having different or adverse interests in the property. Sequestrations are (a) conventional, by act of the parties, or _(b) judicial) by order of a court in a judicial proceeding. There are also certain contracts in the nature of deposits, and commonly regarded as such. Irregular deposits, where money is deposited to be returned not in specie, but by an equal sum. Qi Msi deposits, where one comes lawfully into the possession of goods of another by finding. Story, Bailm. §§ 41-85. In modern usage, the term is most frequently used to denote the deposit of money in a banking institution. Deposits in bank are general if the money deposited becomes the property of the bank, and it undertakes to repay only an equal amount Special, if the particular funds are to be returned.

A naked bailment of goods to be kept for the depositor without reward, and to be returned when he shall require it. Jones, Bailm. 36, 117; Bellows Falls Bank v. Bank, 40 Vt. 380. A bailment of goods to be kept by the bailee without reward, and delivered according to the object or purpose of the original trust. Story, Bailm. § 41; Richardson v. Futrell, 42 Miss. 544 A contract by which one of the contractin- parties gives a thing to another to who is to do so gratuitously and obliges himself to return it when lie shall be requested. See 3 L. R. P. C. C. 101. An irregular deposit arises where one deposits money with another for safekeeping, in cases where the latter is to return, nol the specific money deposited, but an equal sum. A (iitasi deposit arises where one i lawfully into possession of the goods of another by finding. A depositary is bound to take only ordinary care of the deposit, which will of course vary with the character of the goods to be kept, and other circumstances; Edw. Bailm. 43. See Vickroy v. Skelley, 14 S. & R. (Pa.):;-:,; Foster v. Bank, 17 Mass. 479, 9 Am. Dec. 168; Tracy v. Wood, 3 Mas. 132, led. Cas. No. 14,130; 1 B. & Aid. 50. While gross negligence on the part of a gratuitous bailee is not fraud, it is in effect the same thing; First Nat. Bank v. Graham, 100 L. S. 699, 25 L. Ed. 750. He has, in general, no right to use the thing deposited; Bac. Abr. Bailment, D; unless in cases where permission has been given or may from the nature of the case be implied; Story, Bailm. § 90; Jones, Bailm. 80, 81. He is bound to return the deposit in individuo, and in the same state in which he received it: if it is lost, or injured, or spoiled, by his fraud or gross negligence, he is responsible to the extent of the loss or injury; Jones, Bailm. 3G, 40, 120; Foster v. Bank, 17 Mass. 479, 9 Am. Dec. 108; Stanton v. Bell, 9 N. C. 145, 11 Am. Dec. 711; 1 Dine, Abr. c. 17, arts. 1 and 2; Hubbell v. Blandy, 87 Mich. 209, 40 N. W. 502, 24 Am. St. Rep. 154. He is also bound to restore, not only the thin- deposited, but any increase or profits which may have accrued from it; if an animal deposited bear young, the latter are to be delivered to the owner; story, Bailm. § 99. In the case of irregular deposits, as those with a bank, the relation of the bank to its customer is that of debtor and creditor, and does not partake at all of a fiduciary character. It ceases alto-ether to be the money of the depositor, and becomes the money of the bank. It is his to do what he pleases with it, and there is no trust created; Edw. Bailm. 41, 45; Commercial Bank of Albany v. Hughes. 17 Wend. (X. Y.I 91; 1 Mer. 568; American Exchange Nat. Bank v. Gregg, 138 ill. 596, 28 N. 1. 171; Collins v. State, 33 i ith. -'14; Central Nat Bank v. Ins. (Jo., 101 r. E 26 L. Ed. 693. See J -7 N. J. Eq. IS. In Law's I Mate, 114 I Atl. 831, 14 L, R, A. i03, it was held to be "a temporary disposition of money for keeping," not creating the relation of u and creditor; nor is it a loan; id.; Elliott v. state Bank, 128 la. 275 W. 777, l 1.. P. A. (N. S.) II-':". Ill Am. St. Rep. 1'.'-. If the jury believe from the evidence that the parties intended that a bank should Oi ceive a check as cash, hut only as nn • for collection, then title to the check not vest in the bank at the time of the deposit; Fayette Nat. Bank v. Sun 7a. 689, 54 S. E. 862, 7 L. R. A. (N. S.) 694. Where a commission merchant deposits his principal's money in his own account in bank, it cannot be applied to the payment of the former's debt to the bank; Boyle v. Bank, 125 Wis. 498, 103 N. W. 111':;. 104 N. W. 917, 1 L. R. A. (N. S.) 1110, 110 Am. St Pep. 844, citing Union stock Yards Nat Bank v. Gillespie, 137 U. S. 411, 11 Sup. Ct US, 34 L. Ed 724. As to deposits in savings banks, etc., for another, see Donatio Mortis Cai See Check; Indorsement; National Bank. The legal remedy is a suit at law for debt: the balance cannot be reached by a bill in equity; 2 H. L. Cas. 39; except in some cases of insolvency, when a fund can be followed: Voight v. Lewis, 11 Phila. (Pa.) 511. Fed. Cas. No. 16,989. See infra. A bank is not liable for interest unless expressly contracted for; and the deposil is subject to the statute of limitations; 2 II. I. Mc Loghlin v. Bank. 139 N. Y. 514, 34 N. K. 1095. Otherwise, in the case of a certificate of deposit payable on demand; Hartman's Appeal. 107 Pa. 333. The general rule that the title passes upon the deposit does not apply when the E of the deposit is a sight draft and the bank at the time of the acceptance was insolvent and its officers knew it to be so; St. Louis &

A naked bailment of goods to be kept for the depositor without reward, and to be returned when he shall require it Jones, Bailm. 36, 117; National Bank v. Washington County Bank, 5 Hun (N. Y.) 607; Payne v. Gardiner, 29 N. Y. 167; Montgomery v. Evans, 8 Ga. 180; Rozelle v. Rhodes, 116 Pa. 329, 9 Atl. 160, 2 Am. St Rep. 591; In re Patterson, 18 Him (N. Y.) 222. A bailment of goods to be kept by the bailee without reward, and delivered according to the object or purpose of the original trust Story, Bailm. § 41. A deposit, in general, is an act by which a person receives the property of another, binding himself to preserve it and return it in kind. Civ. Code La. art. 2926. When chattels are delivered by one person to another to keep for the use of the bailor, It is called a "deposit." Co.de Ga. 1882, § 2103. The word is also sometimes used to designate money lodged with a person as an earnest or security for the performance of some contract, to be forfeited lf the depositor fails in hls undertaking. Classification. According to the classification of the civil law, deposits are of the following several sorts:
(1) Necessary, made upon some sudden emergency, and from some pressing necessity ; as, for instance, in case of a fire, a shipwreck, or other overwhelming calamity, when property is confided to any person whom the depositor may meet without proper opportunity for reflection or choice, and thence it is called "miserabile depositum."
(2) Voluntary, which arises from the mere consent and agreement of the parties. Civ. Co.de La. art. 2964 ; Dig. 16, 3, 2; Story, Bailm. § 44. The common law has made no such division. There is another class of deposits called "involuntary," which may be without the assent or even knowledge of the depositor; as lumber, etc., left upon another's land by the subsidence of a flood. The civilians again divide deposits Into "simple deposits," made by one or more persons having a common interest, and "sequestrations," made by one or more persons, cach of whom has a different and adverse 'interest in controversy touching It; and these last are of two sorts, —"conventional," or such as are made by the mere agreement of the parties without any judicial act; and "judicial," or such as are made by order of a court in the course of some proceeding. Civ. Code La. art. 2979. There ls another class of deposits called "irregular," as when a person, having a sum of money which he does not think safe in hls own hands, confides it to another, who ls to return to him, not the same money, but a like sum when he shall demand it. Poth. du Depot 82, 83; Story, Bailm. § 84. A regular deposit is a strict or special deposit; a deposit which must be returned in specie; i. e., the thing deposited must be returned. A quasi deposit is a kind of implied or involuntary deposit, which takes place where a party comes lawfully to the possession of another person's property, by finding it Story, Bailm. § 85. Particularly with reference to money, deposits are also classed as general or special. A general deposit is where the money deposited ls not itself to be returned, but an equivalent in money (that ls, a like sum) Is to be returned. It Is equivalent to a loan, and the money deposited becomes the property of the depositary. Insurance Co., v. Landers, 43 Ala. 138. A special deposit ls a deposit in which the identical thing deposited is to be returned to the depositor. The particular object of thls kind of deposit is safe-keeping. Koetting v. State, 88 Wis. 502, 60 N. W. 822. In banking law, this kind of deposit is contrasted with a "general" deposit, as above; but in the civil law it is the antithesis of an "irregular" deposit. A gratuitous or naked deposit is a bailment of goods to be kept for the depositor without hire or reward on either side, or one for which the depositary receives no consideration beyond the mere possession of the thing deposited. Civ. Code Ga. 1895, § 2921; Civ. Code Cal. § 1844. Properly and originally, all deposits are of this description; for according to the Roman law, a bailment of goods for which hire or a price is to be paid, is not calied "depositum" but "locatio." If the owner of the property pays for its custody or care, it is a "locatio custodiæ;" if, on the other hand, the bailee pays for the use of it, it is "locatio rei." (See Locatio.) But in the modern law of those states which have been influenced by the Roman jurisprudence, a gratuitous or naked deposit is distinguished from a "deposit for hire," in which the bailee is to be paid for his services in keeping the article. Civ. Code Cal. 1903, § 1851; Civ. Code Ga. 1895, § 2921.

In banking law. The act of placing or lodging money in the custody of a bank or banker, for safety or convenience, to be withdrawn at the will of the depositor or under rules and regulations agreed on; also the money so deposited. General and special deposits. Deposits of money in a bank are either general or special. A general deposit (the ordinary form) is one which is to be repaid on demand, in whole or In part as called foe, in any current money, not the same pieces of money deposited. In this case, the title to the money deposited passes to the bank, which becomes debtor to the depositor for the amount. A special deposit is one in which the depositor is entitled to the refum of the identical thing deposited (gold, bullion, securities, etc.) and the title to the property remains in him, the deposit being usually made only for purposes of safe-keeping. Shipman v. State Bank, 59 Hun. 621, 13 N. Y. Supp. 475; State v. Clark, 4 Ind. 315 ; Brahm v. Adkins, 77 111. 263; Marine Bank v. Fulton Bank, 2 Wall. 252,17 L. Ed. 785. There is also a specific deposit, which exists where money or property is given to a bank for some specific and particular purpose, as a note for collection, money to pay a particular note, or property for some other specific purpose. Officer v. Officer, 120 Iowa, 389, 94 N W. 947, 98 Am. St. Rep. 365.

— Deposit account. An account of sums lodged with a bank not to be drawn upon by checks, and usually not to be withdrawn except after a fixed notice.

— Deposit company. A company whose business is the safe-keeping of securities or other valuables deposited in boxes or safes in its building which are leased to the depositors.

— Deposit of title-deeds. A method of pledging real property as security for a loan, by placing the title-deeds of the land in the keeping of the lender as pledgee.

A species of bailment, derived from the civil law, and called also, after that law, depositum. v. Depositum.

GRATUITOUS. Gratuitous deposit, is a deposit for which the depositary receives no consideration beyond the mere possession of the thing deposited. Civil Code Cal. § 1844.

A species of

A species of bailment, derived from the civil law, and called also, after that law, depositum. Lord Holt, who is followed by Sir W. Jones, and Mr. Chancellor Kent have adopted the latter term in their definitions. 2 Ld. Baym. 909. Jones on Bailm. 36, et seq. 2 Kent^s Com. 558, 560. Mr. Justice Story has made use of the English word deposit. Story on Bailm. § 4, 41, et seq. See Depositum.