Wells Fargo

“ The Wells Fargo safe had been smashed one night between Lobo Wells and Randall, netting the bandit about ten thousand dollars.
Less than a month later the Kernwood stage, carrying five thousand dollars in the strong box, was robbed just out of Lobo Wells, and the description of the lone robber tallied closely to that of the man who had robbed the express car. Descriptions given by men who have been looking down the muzzle of a gun are seldom accurate enough for identification, so the officers merely waited for the bandit to break out again. ”

“ We find the rather interesting fact that in Sacramento a man, giving his name as Arnold Wentworth paid to Wells Fargo and Company the sum of twenty thousand dollars in bills of a thousand dollars each for an order payable to Helga Strawn in New York. ”

“ After Alvin Adams, came a host of express services springing up all over the eastern end of the United States. Henry Wells, who had been the associate of Harnden in the development of his business, formed a partnership with one George Pomeroy for a service between Albany and Buffalo. William G. Fargo, the freight-agent for the one-time Albany and Syracuse Railroad, was the freight-agent for Pomeroy and Wells at Buffalo in 1842. Wells and Fargo eventually got together, and in the [Pg 372] throbbing days of the late forties and the fifties, Wells, Fargo & Co. ”

“ The record in this court shows a bill of complaint to have a conveyance of real estate in Alaska annulled on the ground of duress and to have paid to the plaintiff moneys alleged to have been deposited in the Wells Fargo Nevada National Bank of San Francisco by one Noyes, claiming to act as receiver of a Nevada corporation. These funds are alleged to be the proceeds of a part of the real estate. The complaint is entitled 'Superior Court of the State of California.' The record shows next an answer filed in the federal court for the Northern district of the state. ”

“ EXTRAORDINARY DISCOVERY FINDING OF THE STOLEN TREASURE OF WELLS, FARGO & CO. OVER $800,000 RECOVERED
Our readers will remember the notorious robbery of Wells, Fargo & Co.'s treasure from the Sacramento and Red Chief Pioneer Coach on the night of September 1. Although most of the gang were arrested, it is known that two escaped, who, it was presumed, cached the treasure, amounting to nearly $500,000 in gold, drafts, and jewelry, as no trace of the property was found. Yesterday our esteemed fellow citizen, Mr. ”

“ Two tons of silver bullion would be in the neighborhood of forty bars, and the freight on it over $1,000. Each coach always carried a deal of ordinary express matter beside, and also from fifteen to twenty passengers at from $25 to $30 a head. With six stages going all the time, Wells, Fargo and Co.'s Virginia City business was important and lucrative. ”

“ In the afternoon Donna had a visit from a Wells Fargo & Company detective. He was a large fatherly person, who might have had girls of his own as old as Donna, and he stated his mission without embarrassment of preliminary verbal skirmishing. “From various sources around town, Miss Corblay, I gather that it is quite possible you are acquainted with the man McGraw who is suspected of the recent stage robbery at Garlock.” ”

“ The confirmation slips do not indicate an agreement that WFAL could collect its deposits from Citibank assets in New York; indeed, Citibank/Manila's confirmation slip, stating that " [a] t maturity we remit US Dlr 1,049,444.44 to your account with Wells Fargo Bank Intl Corp NY through Citibank New York," see supra, at 664 (emphasis added) , tends to negate the existence of any such agreement. The telexes from the money broker who arranged the deposits speak in terms of repayment, and indicate no more than that repayment was to be made to WFAL's account with its correspondent bank in New York ”

“ General relief also is prayed.
Taylor challenged the bill by a demurrer, which was overruled, and after a hearing in due course the express company prevailed. On appeal to the Circuit Court of Appeals that decree was reversed and the suit remanded because in that court's opinion the bill did not show that Taylor was not in the employ of the railroad company or that he was solely in the employ of the express company. Taylor v. Wells Fargo & Co., 220 Fed. 796, 136 C. C. A. 402. ”

“ Frank Lyon as attorney for the Commission, to seek a way out of the inextricable maze of express company figures. Whether we will be able to find the light before the Infinite Hand that controls our destinies cuts short the cord, is a question to which no certain answer can be given. Would you kindly advise the importunate members of a most worthy institution, that express rates to San Francisco possess me as an obsessment. My prayer is at night interfered with by consideration of the question—"What should the 100 pound rate be by Wells Fargo & Co. from New York to San Francisco?" ”

“ Dick 170 asked, wondering at such a tale, when millmen and miners were distinguished for keeping inviolate the secrets of the property on which they worked.
“Wells Fargo,” the engineer answered. “None of the boys would say anything. He pays top wages and hires good men. Got to hand that to him. He brags there ain’t no man so high-priced that he can’t make money off’n him––Bully Presby does. And they ain’t no better miner than him on earth. He can smell pay ore a mile underground––Bully Presby can.”
The old man suddenly looked at the superintendent, and said: “Say, Bill. ”

“ Fannie Mae's $136.2 billion investment in mortgages to minority families exceed that of any private financial services institution—and may I say particularly Wells Fargo and their other competitors, who thrive in subprime and predatory lending—and even greatly exceeded the FHA's $46.4 billion in minority loan originations. ”

“ The passengers were then ordered to alight and stand in a row, continually being covered with guns by a part of the band and by others relieved of their personal effects. [Pg 87] Then the stage coach was systematically gone through together with the Wells Fargo & Co's. safe, which often contained gold into the thousands. These hold-ups were not infrequent and were the fear of all who were obliged to pass through these canyons of robbery and often death. The bunch that we harbored were undoubtedly as bold a band of robbers and murderers as ever infested the silent caves of the Rockies. ”

“ But in this case a San Francisco syndicate came into the picture, providing the necessary capital funds for the searching out of whatever ultimate wealth the Homestake might have.
This syndicate of Pacific Coast businessmen included James Ben Ali Haggin, a partner in the highly solvent Wells Fargo express company, and Senator George Hearst, the father of the publisher, William Randolph Hearst. These vigorous men sent a mining engineer into the Hills in 1877 to canvass the location for possible investments ”

“ His capture would consist more of luck than anything else. As you have said, the description of the robber would fit half the men in the Valley. And as far as that is concerned, any one man in the Valley could have done the job.”
“And he’d be a sucker to give it back,” declared Chuck.
“We don’t expect him to give it back. But to the man who can recover that money—or rather the packages, intact—we will give five thousand dollars.”
Slim did not tell the Wells Fargo man about his suspicions in regard to Rance McCoy, but Merkle, the prosecutor, did, and the man came straight back to Slim about it. ”

“ In common with all the old mining towns—though I was unaware of it at the time—Angel's, as it is usually called, is situated in the ravine where gold was first discovered. It straggles down the gulch for a mile and a half. There are a number of pretty cottages clinging to the steep hillsides, surrounded with flowers and trees, the whole effect being extremely pleasing. I registered at the, built in 1852. Across the street is the Wells Fargo building, erected about the same time and of solid stone, as is the hotel. ”

“ The bill, with a supplement and amendment, proceeds on the theory that, in suing the railroad company and obtaining a judgment against it, which as between that company and the express company must be paid by the latter as stipulated in their contract. Taylor not only violated the messenger's agreement, but perpetrated a legal fraud on the express company; that the judgment is therefore one which in equity and good conscience he has no right to enforce ”

“ The sheriff was too single-handed among such a crowd as that, and the driver put a question to his friend. It could be managed by taking a slight liberty with other people’s horses; but Wells and Fargo would not find fault with this when the case was one of their own servants, hitherto so well thought of. The stage, being empty and light, could spare two horses and go on, while those two horses, handled with discretion and timeliness, might be very useful at the Gap. The driver had best not depart from rule so far as to leave his post and duty; one man would be enough. ”

“ On January 5, 1911, the District Court for Alaska appointed receivers for the Washington-Alaska Bank, a Nevada banking corporation engaged in business in Fairbanks, Alaska. The husband of the appellant had been the president, director and manager of the bank from its incorporation. In February, 1911, the appellant, then residing in Los Angeles, Cal., went with her husband to Fairbanks to assist in the liquidation of the bank's business, its assets and affairs being then in the hands of the receivers. ”

“ In other words, the dispute is not so much about where repayment physically was to be made or where the deposits were collectible, but rather which assets Citibank is required to use in order to satisfy its obligation to plaintiff. As we have previously found that the contract was silent on this issue, we interpret query (d) as imposing upon us the task . . . of deciding whether New York or Philippine law controls the answer to that question." Id., at 19a.
The District Court held that, under either New York or federal choice-of-law rules, New York law should be applied. ”

“ WFAL commenced the present action against Citibank in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, claiming that Citibank in New York was liable for the funds that WFAL deposited with Citibank/Manila. While the lawsuit was pending, Citibank obtained permission from the Central Bank of the Philippines to repay its Manila depositors to the extent that it could do so with the non-Philippine assets of the Manila branch. It paid WFAL $934,000; the remainder of the deposits, $1,066,000, remains in dispute. ”

“ The first is that there was an agreement between the parties to permit collection in New York, or indeed at any place where Citibank has assets, an agreement implied from all the facts in the case as being within the contemplation of the parties. A second, and alternative, theory for permitting collection is that, assuming no such agreement, there is a duty to pay in New York in any event, a duty that the law creates when the parties have not contracted otherwise. ”

“ After a bench trial on the merits, the District Court accepted WFAL's invitation to assume that Philippine law governs the action. The court saw the issue to be whether, under Philippine law, a depositor with Citibank/Manila may look to assets booked at Citibank's non-Philippine offices for repayment of the deposits. After considering affidavits from the parties, it concluded (1) that under Philippine law an obligation incurred by a branch is an obligation of the bank as a whole ”

“ Adams Express Co. v. Ohio, 165 U.S. 194, 220, 17 Sup. Ct. 305, 41 L. Ed. 683; s. c., 166 U.S. 185, 218, 17 Sup. Ct. 604, 41 Ed. 965; Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Ry. Co. v. Texas, 210 U.S. 217, 225-227, 28 Sup. Ct. 638, 52 L. Ed. 1031; Cudahy Packing Co. v. ”

“ North American Savings & Loan Bldg. Co. (C. C.) 97 F. 9) . Jurisdiction could not be sustained on the ground that the case is one 'arising under the * * * laws of the United States,' because the mere fact that the defendant Noyes is the reputed receiver of a state corporation appointed by a federal court is not a ground for removal. [7] Gableman v. Peoria, Decatur & Evansville Ry. Co., 21 S.C.t. 171, 179 U.S. 335, 45 L. Ed. 220. The record shows no other way in which the case arises under the laws of the United States. There is no actual controversy as to any federal matter. ”

“ The parties agree that Citibank assumed the risk of loss caused by either the insolvency of its Manila branch, or by an act of God. #fn-s [1] Citibank argues that only the so-called "sovereign risk" is excluded from its undertaking to repay the deposit out of its general assets. ”

“ Fargus, clasping his temples in his hands, broke away in terror and, by some instinct avoiding his former direction, turned north, winding and twisting helplessly in the labyrinth of the ill-smelling slums. Still everything was confused, his hatred and his agony. It was always the world which pursued him with its jeers. This obsession possessed him so completely that even the noises of the city, the rumble of truck and carriage, the roar of the Elevated, the screams of the street hawkers, the hum and swish of the crowd, struck his ears as so many delirious taunts. ”

“ Anger had always come quickly to Fargo, but it isn’t good for the spirit to have it remain indefinitely. It cuts deep lines in the face and fills the eyeballs with ugly little blood vessels, and it makes the hands shake and the heart burn. It also swells the little sacks under the eyes, a thing that is never pleasant to see. It was plain that certain events had recently occurred that Fargo had not yet forgotten, but which had incited a strange hunger within himself that must be satiated with something quite different from bread. ”

“ A man might see—that while he still had strength left to fight, he wouldn’t have the least chance to win.”
“Exactly. Yet if a man had time to call out that way, he’d at least have time to run. A man can take a big jump in a second, Fargo.”
Fargo’s voice fell. “Perhaps he couldn’t run.”
“Ah!” The coroner paused. “Because he was in the grasp of his assailant?”
“Yes.”
“Yet he still had his strength left. Nealman was a man among men, wasn’t he, Fargo?” ”