I worked in Cincinnati, where there is a branch (still no tellers and the tightest security I had ever seen in the 80's) which mostly handles cash distribution to banks and had some offices. My duties were related to the quarterly activity survey, pretty boring stuff but a fascinating in for a geek like me who wants to learn how the world works. I met a lot of people then who are fairly important people now in banking and government.noblepa wrote:
There's an office building here in Cleveland that was built prior to 1933, the Halle Building. (Gregg, you probably know where it is, since you worked for the Fed, which is just a few blocks away). Incidentally, this is the building after which Halle Berry is named. Anyway, the original contract to lease it contained such a "payment in gold coin" clause.
As you say, when FDR made that clause illegal, payment reverted to "lawful money", ie, US dollars.
Apparently, the original lease is still in effect. A few years ago, I read that the current owners were trying to enforce the gold payment option, since gold ownership was legalized in 1977. The contract did not specify a dollar-equivalent amount of gold; it required a specified number of ounces. At today's prices, the amount would be astronomical.
I just googled it, and found this story, from 2008:
http://blog.cleveland.com/pdextra/2008/ ... requi.html
The article says that the tenant was paying $35,000 annualy for the building, while the owners wanted 1693 ounces of gold. At 2008 prices, that came to $1.5 million.
I do remember the Halle building case, I don't know how it finally turned out, but it's kind of a backwards case. I also disagree with the decision the 6th reached as reported in the link you sent. If its true, as the article says, that Congress allowed Gold Clauses to be in agreements after 1975 then I would think that the Executive Order and the Gold Reserve Act of 1934 would be the applicable law...from wiki
Any lawyers here interested enough to see how the case finally turned out? Or care to discuss how they managed to repeal a law that Congress specifically did not, after prolonged debate on just this sort of thing happening had they done so.the limitation on gold ownership in the U.S. was repealed after President Gerald Ford signed a bill legalizing private ownership of gold coins, bars and certificates by an act of Congress codified in Pub.L. 93–373[6] which went into effect December 31, 1974. Pub.L. 93-373 did not repeal the Gold Clause Resolution of 1933, which made unenforceable any contracts which specified payment in a fixed amount of money or a fixed amount of gold. That is, contracts remained unenforceable if they used gold monetarily rather than as a commodity of trade. However, the Act of October 28, 1977, Pub.L. 95–147, § 4(c),[7] amended the 1933 Joint Resolution and made it clear that parties could again include so-called gold clauses in contracts formed after 1977