Farish v. State Banking Board of Oklahoma, 235 U.S. 498 (1915)

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Farish v. State Banking Board of Oklahoma

Nos. 446

, 447

Argued October 14, 15, 1914
Decided January 5, 1915
235 U.S. 498

APPEALS FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF OKLAHOMA

Syllabus

Lankford v. Platte Iron Work, ante, p. 461, followed to the effect that, under the Eleventh Amendment, the State Banking Board and Bank Commissioner of Oklahoma are not subject to suit by depositors of insolvent banks.

Although one may become subrogated to all the rights of a depositor in an insolvent bank in Oklahoma, that does not give him the right of suit against the state officer administering the Depositors’ Guaranty Fund.

As the statute creating the State Banking Board of Oklahoma does not give the Board power to waive the state’s exemption from suit, so appearance on behalf of the members of the Board does not amount to such a waiver. Gunter v. Atlantic Coast Line, 200 U.S. 273, distinguished.

Quaere where the court has entered a decree establishing rights between the individual parties but dismissing the suit as against the state officers on the ground that it was one against the state, whether those officers, by employing counsel to resist complainant’s recovery, are not bound by the decree to the extent of the rights adjudicated.

The facts, which involve the claims of depositors in certain Oklahoma banks and the application of the Eleventh Amendment to suits in the federal court to compel the members of the State Banking Board of Oklahoma to make payments from and distribute the Depositors’ Guaranty Fund, and also the question of whether the state consented to be sued, are stated in the opinion.