US SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

Where a bill in chancery was filed by the assignee of a bankrupt claiming certain shares of bank stock, the same being also claimed by the bank and by other persons who were all made defendants, and the answer of the bank set forth apparently valid titles to the stock, which were not impeached by the complainant in the subsequent proceedings in the cause nor impeached by the other defendants, the circuit court decreed correctly in confirming the title of the bank. chanrobles.com-red

Page 54 U. S. 152

A power of attorney to confess a judgment is a security within the second section of the Bankrupt act, 5 Stat. 442.

And this security is void if given by the debtor in contemplation of bankruptcy. But by these terms is meant an act of bankruptcy on an application by himself to be decreed a bankrupt, and not a mere state of insolvency.

In this case there is evidence enough to show that the debtor contemplated a legal bankruptcy when the power of attorney was given.

It is not usury in a bank which has power by its charter to deal in exchange to charge the market rates of exchange upon time bills.

On 27 May, 1842, John Mahard, Jr., filed his petition in bankruptcy, and on 20 July, 1842, was declared a bankrupt.

Nathaniel C. McLean was appointed his assignee in bankruptcy.

John Mahard had been transacting business at Cincinnati with his brother, William Mahard, under the firm of J. & W. Mahard, and at New Orleans, under the firm of Mahard & Brother.

On 12 August, 1842, William Mahard filed his petition in bankruptcy.

On 5 January, 1843, McLean filed his bill in the circuit court against a great number of persons, who had outstanding liens on the property of John Mahard, Jr., at the time of his filing his petition in bankruptcy. They were the President, Directors, and Company of the Lafayette Bank of Cincinnati; the President, Directors, and Company of the Northern Bank of Kentucky; Andrew Johnson; John S. Buckingham; Mark Buckingham; the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company; the President, Directors, and Company of the Bank of the United States, incorporated by the State of Pennsylvania; the President, Directors, and Company of the Commercial Bank of Cincinnati; the President, Directors, and Company of the Franklin Bank of Cincinnati; James Dundas, Mordecai D. Lewis, Samuel W. Jones, Robert L. Pitfield, and Robert Howell, assignees &c.; John Mahard, Sen., John McLaughlin, George Milne and James Keith, partners, doing business in the firm name of Geo. Milne & Co., Charles B. Dyer, Frederick Trow, John C. Avery, late sheriff, and John H. Gerard, present Sheriff of Hamilton County.

The assignee, McLean enjoined proceedings in the state courts where the parties were prosecuting their several liens, and brought all matters connected with the bankrupts into the circuit court of the United States.

In the progress of the cause, a number of collateral matters were brought into the case, but the facts upon which the questions arose before this Court are stated in the opinion, to which the reader is referred. chanrobles.com-red

Page 54 U. S. 163