Montana Attorney General Opinion 15-617

Opinion No. 617 Banl{s and Banking-Dit'ectors -Qualifications. HELD: A bank director is not dis- qualified hecuuse he has given an op- tion to the sellei' to re-purchase the stock necessary to qualify him, pro- \'iderl the director is a bona fide stock- holder un<1 ahsolute owner in his own right. September 24, 1934. You havc suhmitted thc question whether Section n, Chapter 89, Laws of 1927, permits a person to qualify as a director of a state bank where he purchases the statutory required num- ber of shares for cash or gives a note for the same and at the same time in- cludes an option agreement giving to the seller the right to re-purchase the stock at pal' on any annual meeting date of the hank or upon the death, insolvency or bankruptcy of the share- hohler. This method, you state, has been followe<l by group hanks and has heen appro\'ed by the Comptroller in case of national banks. I am of the opinion that if the sale is bona fide and the director is the absolute owner in his own right of the sf:ock, the option to purchase is not in conflict with the statute above named as it now stands. From the .facts as stated abo\-c, we could not say that such director was not a stockholder owning, in his own right, shares of the value required by statute. In the absence of a statute forbidding it, we are unable to say that it is not per- missible.