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48 NORTH DAKOTA REPORTS

agreed with the plaintiff to collect the Ellsbury note and reinvest the proceeds in another good first real estate mortgage; that it had in its possession for safe-keeping and collection this $2,000 Ellsbury note; that the plaintiff sent a release of this Ellsbury mortgage to the defendant bank or its officers for purposes of collecting the Ellsbury mortgage; that the proceeds of this mortgage was paid into the Lucca State Bank and the funds received by the defendant bank; that the defendant on or about January 20, 1914, had under its control or in its possession $2,000, the proceeds of the Ellsbury loan; that the defendant forwarded to the plaintiff on or about January 20, 1914, the Alfalfa Valley Land Company note and mortgage, and represented to the plaintiff that the proceeds of the Ellsbury mortgage was invested in such mortgage and that the title of the lands was in such land company; that it represented that the assistant secretary of this land company was authorized under the by-laws to execute notes and mortgages, and that this mortgage was a first lien upon the land; that he represented that this loan was well secured and that the land was level land, good medium soil, all under cultivation, and well located in a good neighborhood; that it promised to procure and record a deed from the Northern Trading Company to this land company; that in the transactions of collecting the Ellsbury loan and the reinvestment of the proceeds in the land company loan R. C. Kittel was acting as president of the defendant and the plaintiff dealt with him as such; that the representations were made with the intent to deceive the plaintiff and for the purpose of inducing him to accept the land company loan; that the offer making such representations did not believe them to be true and had no reasonable grounds for so believing; that the plaintiff believed and relied upon such representations, and that they were false and untrue; that since January 25, 1916, this land company, the Northern Trading Company, and R. C. Kittel have been insolvent; that plaintiff was damaged in the sum of $2,000, with interest.

Contentions.

The plaintiff contends that the special findings of the jury are sustained by the evidence; that the transactions involve acts of a bank intra vires; and that, even though the same be ultra vires, the bank may not avail itself of such defense in an action for fraud and deceit.

The defendant attacks the special findings of the jury. The contention