“ The minimum amount of the dividends generally is as fixed in practice as if it were written in a bond. The practical certainty that a savings bank will pay is greater, in short, than that an average debtor will pay 6 per cent according to his promise in a note. The only element of uncertainty other than that conditioning all future conduct is the possibility that the dividend may be greater than that which experience has led the depositor to expect. ”

“ The obligation to pay the one stands on the same footing as the obligation to pay the other; the two are one; they are limbs of the same contract; and there is no reason for splitting them up. Adams v. Cordis, 8 Pick. 260, 269. It may be true that, apart from statute, the attachment of stock in a corporation would not hold subsequently declared dividends; but, if so, that is because the stockholders have no right to the dividends until they are declared, which may never be if the directors see fit to convert earnings into capital. ”

“ The question then narrows itself to whether the so-called dividends of savings banks are analogous to dividends of a corporation, or to interest due by contract upon a debt.
The plaintiff in error is an ordinary savings bank without stockholders. It is subject to a fiduciary duty to hold and invest for the benefit of its depositors all the funds that it receives, and to pay over to them all the net income earned, after the retention of enough to constitute a small safety fund. Gen. Stat. §§ 3440, 3441. This duty certainly is no less because created by statute rather than by contract. ”