Puffenbarger v. Charter

Hatoher, President:

In each of these proceedings the ward of the guardian was a beneficiary of a U. S. soldier who died in service during the World War; compensation for the ward was paid to the guardian by the U. S. Government; the guardian deposited the payment in a State bank which has since become insolvent; and the guardian asks now that this deposit be treated as a preferred claim against the bank.

The position of each petitioner is that when he accepted the payment for his ward, he then became the agent — “a trustee or depositary” — of the federal government, and that while the money…