COLLAPSE OF BANK

Southland Times, Issue 22210, 30 December 1933, Page 5

COLLAPSE OF BANK

EFFORT TO REGAIN DEPOSITS.

UNIQUE AMERICAN SUIT.

(United Press Assn—Telegraph Copyright.) New York, December 28.

The City Clearing House Association, comprising twenty of the largest local banks, is preparing to fight the equity suit filed by the fiscal agents of the Federal Government to regain for depositors the money they lost in the collapse of the Harriman Bank, aggregating about 9,000,000 dollars. The Government alleges that at least a year before the February bank crisis Mr E. R. Harriman was insolvent, but as the Clearing House members feared its closing .would precipitate a general bank crisis they jointly undertook to guarantee the deposits to keep open. After Mr Roosevelt became President the officials ordered the institution to be liquidated. The Clearing House now declares that the agreement was made in a time of crisis and that it was not legally binding and refuses to make restitution. It is believed that the Government suit is unique in the history of American jurisprudence.