A general deposit of money in a bank creates a debt from the bank to the depositor. The money becomes the banker's to use as he can.1 Whether interest be paid or not,2 whether the deposit be on an open checking account or a time deposit,3 the rule is the same. If it be a deposit in a savings bank, payable upon notice, the money belongs to the bank.4 The relation is not that of trustee and cestui que trust,5 although in some cases money placed in a bank by a depositor becomes a common-law trust. Those cases are where a specific sum of money is remitted to a banker to pay a specified debt, the relation is that of bailor and bailee, and the bank is a trustee for the amount;6 or where a person deposits money with one bank for transmission to his own bank,7 in which case the transmitting bank is not relieved from responsibility by turning the amount over to another bank to transmit, acccording to a. custom not known to the person depositing the money;8 or where debts were due to a former owner of the bank which the bank collected and held in its general funds.9 The engagement of the banker, which is merely a poor phrase for his customary and lawful duty, is to honor and pay all drafts and checks drawn by the depositor upon the bank until the deposit is exhausted, and to repay upon demand any balance that remains clue above the checks and drafts or other claims lawfully paid.10 This relation is not varied in the least by the fact that the deposit may be or become payable to some one else than the depositor.11 The bank may select its own depositors,12 and the depositor is always entitled at reasonable hours to examine the books of the bank in order to ascertain the state of his own account.13 Bank bills received as cash are money deposited.14

1 Bank of Kentucky v. Wister, 2 Pet. 324; Dabney v. State Bank, 3 S. C. 124; Robinson v. Gardner, 18 Gratt. 509, and numerous other cases.

2 State v. Bartley, 39 Neb. 353.

3 Williams v. Rogers, 14 Bush, 776; Leaphart v. Commercial Bank, 45 S. C. 563.

4 Johnson v. Ward, 2 Bradw. 261. 5 Buchanan Farm Oil Co. v. Woodman, 1 Hun, 639.

6 City of St. Louis v. Johnson, 5 Dill. 241. Compare iEtna Bank v. Fourth Nat. Bank, 46 N. Y. 82.

7 Drovers' Nat Bank v. O'Hare, 119 Ill 646: Cutler v. American Ex. Nat. Bank, 113 N. Y. 593. See Sec. Sec. 162, 163, 345, post.

8 Union Stock Yards Nat. Bank v. Dumond, 150 111. 501.

9 Parsons v. Treadwell, 50 N. H. 356.