Thompson v. Riggs/Opinion of the Court

United States Supreme Court

72 U.S. 663

Thompson  v.  Riggs

ERROR to the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia.

Riggs & Co. were bankers in the District of Columbia: Thompson was a business man there, keeping a bank account with them, depositing specie, treasury notes, bank notes, bills for collection, in the ordinary way of bank customers. Prior to April, 1861, no distinction apparently had been made in the mode of entering, in his pass-book, credits of coin and credits of current bank notes, then payable throughout the country in coin, on demand. All kinds of money deposited had been entered in the pass-books alike. In April, 1861, the banks generally suspended specie payments, and a difference between the value of coin and of bank notes, or 'current funds,' as these were called, began to show itself, becoming by degrees, for some time, greater. Riggs & Co., at that date, began to make a difference in receiving and paying deposits, paying in coin when the deposit was made in coin, and in currency when made in currency. On the 18th June, 1861, Thompson had made deposits—

Coin,............................ $2,920

Currency,......................... 2,463

$8,226

Notes