by the assignee of the payee. (Fourth Nat. Bank of Chicago v. City Nat. Bank of Grand Rapids, Mich., 10 N. B. R. 44.)

Assignee's rights as to commercial paper, etc.-The payee of a negotiable bill or note, who sells or delivers the same before bankruptcy without indorsement, may after bankruptcy indorse it so that the holder can maintain an action thereon in his own name. (Hersey v. Elliott, 18 N. B. R. 358.) The mere presentation of an ordinary commercial bill of exchange to the drawee, without acceptance by the latter, who holds funds of the bankrupt by whom the bill is drawn, does not operate as an appropriation or equitable assignment of the amount drawn for, and creates no lien as against such funds, and the assignee of the bankrupt will be entitled to the funds. (Randolph & Co. v. Canby, Ass., 11 N. B. R. 296; Fed. Cas. 11559.) Where a trustee has proved the claim for a note against the estate of the payee in bankruptcy, and where the holder has not, on the faith thereof, changed his position in regard to the note, the trustee is not estopped from disputing the claim of the holder. (In re Dodge et al., 17 N. B. R. 504; 9 Ben. 480; Fed. Cas. 3948.) Notes given for the excess over legal interest are not provable in bankruptcy, and must be surrendered to the assignee. (Shaffer v. Fritchery & Thomas, 4 N. B. R. 179; Fed. Cas. 12697.)

It having been represented by a firm that certain notes are business paper, and the holder having parted with his money on the faith of the representation, the assignee of the firm cannot deny it. (In re Many et al., 17 N. B. R. 514; Fed. Cas. 9054.) Where one gives another, in the regular course of business and for valuable consideration, a promissory note, and delivers certificates in pledge, and becomes bankrupt, the refusal of the payee to return the certificates if he does not prove his claim does not amount to a conversion thereof. (Yeatman v. New Orleans Savings Institution, 17 N. B. R. 187; 95 U. S. 764.)

Where a banking society has not for years conducted its business as a bank, but has pursued a policy of liquidation by set-off, the deposits being a commodity represented by papers in the form of checks, and such papers do not represent money, are not payable at sight, and are limited in negotiability, they are not checks, but mere evidence of assignment of choses in action, and those selling them are not responsible to the assignee of the society for the face value thereof. (Harmanson, Ass., v. Bain et al., 15 N. B. R. 173; 1 Hughes, 188; Fed. Cas. 6072.)

Stockholders' liability.- A stockholder cannot, after the company has become insolvent, avoid his liability on the ground that false representations were made to him that no assessment could be made on his stock. (Upton, Ass., v. Hansbrough, 10 N. B. R. 368; 3 Biss. 417; 5 Chi. Leg. News, 242; 7 West. Jur. 238; Fed. Cas. 16801.) Where one, induced by false representations, takes stock in a corporation two years before its bankruptcy, and in payment gives his promissory note secured by a deed of trust, and during such period makes no inquiry as to the financial condition of the corporation, he cannot, after the bankruptcy thereof,

(Farrar v.

rescind his purchase of stock and avoid the obligation. Walker, Ass., et al., 13 N. B. R. 82; 3 Dill. 506, note; 1 N. Y. Weekly Dig. 229; 2 Cent. Law J. 670; Fed. Cas. 4679.)

Limitation of title of assignee in case of stockholders.-The individual liability of stockholders for the debts of the corporation to the amount of their stock is neither property, nor a right of property, nor a credit of the bankrupt corporation, and the assignee has no legal or equitable right or interest therein. (Dutcher, Ass., v. Marine Nat. Bank of New York et al., 11 N. B. R. 457; 12 Blatchf. 435; Fed. Cas. 4203.) Where creditors of an insolvent corporation are also stockholders, they will not be permitted to deduct the amount of their claims from their proportions of the unpaid capital; yet if their debts be proved in bankruptcy, deductions may be made, perhaps, from the assignee's demands, equal to their estimated dividends. (Wilbur, Ass., v. Stockholders, 18 N. B. R. 178; 13 Phila. 479; 35 Leg. Int. 316; 26 Pittsb. Leg. T. 15; Fed. Cas. 17636.) An assignee of corporate stock who has caused it to be transferred to himself on the books of the company and holds it as collateral security for a debt due from his assignor is liable for unpaid balances thereon to the company or to the creditors of the company after it has become bankrupt. (Pullman v. Upton, Ass., etc., 17 N. B. R. 489; 96 U. S. 328.) Where by the articles of a stockholders' association a seat in it, in the event of insolvency of the member, is required to be disposed of and the proceeds applied first exclusively to the payment of debts due other members, the assignee of the bankrupt broker is only entitled to the surplus after other members are paid in full. (Hyde, Ass., v. Woods et al., 10 N. B. R. 54; 1 Amer. Law T. Rep. (N. S.) 354; 2 Sawy. 655; Fed. Cas. 6975.)

Insurance. When a debtor at his own expense effects an insurance on his life, as security to a creditor, the representative of the debtor is entitled to the surplus after the debt is paid. If such debtor, in his lifetime, pay the debt, he is entitled to have the policy delivered up to him. (In re Newland, 7 N. B. R. 477; 6 Ben. 342; Fed. Cas. 10170.) Where a creditor takes out an insurance on the life of his debtor as security for the debt due him, and pays all the premiums, proves his debt in bankruptcy and receives dividends thereon, and receives in full the original amount of the debt from the insurance company, upon the death of the bankrupt prior to the declaration of the last dividend, after deducting the premiums paid by him with interest, the creditor must pay to the assignee all over the amount sufficient, with the dividends and payments previously made, to pay the debt in full. (In re Newland, 9 N. B. R. 62; 7 Ben. 63; 2 Ins. Law J. 860, 895; 4 Bigelow, Ins. Cas. 283; Fed. Cas. 10171.) An adjudication of bankruptcy terminates the interest of the bankrupt in any policy of insurance, and it is void; but an insurance company may consent to continue its liability by the usual transfer of the policy to the register in charge of the bankruptcy proceedings, until an assignee shall have been appointed, and may also transfer the policy to the assignee when appointed. (In re Carow, 4 N. B. R. 178; 41 How.

Pr. 112; Fed. Cas. 2426.) Where a bankrupt is at the time of adjudication the owner of a building covered by a policy of insurance providing that, "if the title to the property is transferred or changed, this policy shall be void," and "if without the written consent of the company this policy be assigned, it shall be void," and the building is destroyed by fire after the transfer to the assignee, the transfer, being by operation of law, does not avoid the policy, and the assignee may recover the insurance money. (Starkweather v. Cleveland Ins. Co., 4 N. B. R. 110; 3 Chi. Leg. News, 77; 28 Leg. Int. 36; 10 Amer. Law Reg. (N. S.) 333; 5 Amer. Law Rev. 568; Fed. Cas. 13308.) Where an insurance company reorganizes under a special charter giving a right to increase its capital and issues certificates of stock, twenty per cent. only of the par value thereof being required to be paid, the stockholders will, upon the bankruptcy of the company, be liable for the unpaid balance due on such certificates. (Upton, Ass., v. Hansbrough, 10 N. B. R. 368; 3 Biss. 417; 5 Chi. Leg. News, 242; 7 West. Jur. 238; Fed. Cas. 16801.)

Assignee's relation — Partnership property.- Where a surviving partner is adjudged a bankrupt as such, and as an individual, his assignee is entitled to the partnership assets (In re Temple, 17 N. B. R. 345; 4 Sawy. 62; Fed. Cas. 13825); and his share in the joint estate will vest in the assignee, though the firm is not declared bankrupt. (Wilkins v. Davis, 15 N. B. R. 60; 2 Lowell, 511; Fed. Cas. 17664.) The assignee of a bankrupt firm takes by the assignment all the property of the firm and of the individual members thereof, even though part of the property may be out of the district in which the bankrupts reside, and owned in part by the partners not joined in hankruptcy proceedings. (In re Leland, 5 N. B. R. 222; 5 Ben. 168; Fed. Cas. 8228.) Where agents of a corporation consign goods thereof for sale to a firm, of which one of the agents is a member, and the firm accepts and pays drafts of the agents to an amount in excess of all their consignments before receipt of the goods, such acts do not constitute a payment, and the firm is liable. (In re Baxter et al., 18 N. B. R. 62; Fed. Cas. 1119.)

An assignee of an individual member of a firm appointed upon his petition alone acquires no title to the property of the firm, whether the firm be existing or dissolved. (Hudgins v. Lane & Smithson, 11 N. B. R. 462; 2 Hughes, 361; Fed. Cas. 6827.) Where goods are obtained through a misrepresentation, by a firm composed of several members, a return of the goods or their proceeds to the creditor will be valid, as against the assignee of two of the creditors, if the goods have not lost their identity, so as to form a part of the property of the bankrupt. (Montgomery, Ass., v. Bucyrus Machine Works, 14 N. B. R. 193; 92 U. S. 257.)

Interest of wife in property of bankrupt.-If a husband receive money from his wife and invest it in realty in her name until he accumulates property of considerable value by his skill and energy, the property is liable to his assignee. (Muirhead, Ass., v. Aldridge et al., 14 N. B. R. 249; 2 N. Y. Wkly. Dig. 480; 33 Leg. Int. 213; Fed. Cas. 9904.) Where

a bankrupt and his wife build a house on land to which the latter acquires the title with funds furnished by both, the assignee is entitled to a conveyance in the right of the wife by her and her husband, of an undivided one-half interest in the premises, to be lessened by the amount of the homestead right. (Johnson, Ass., v. May et al., 16 N. B. R. 425; Fed. Cas. 7397.) A valid conveyance may be made by an assignee of land held by the husband at the time of bankruptcy, without reserving or providing for dower interest. (In re Kelly v. Strange, 2 N. B. R. 2; Fed. Cas. 7676.) A gift by a bankrupt to his wife before adjudication, and not in contemplation of insolvency, of funds which were used in improving the separate estate of the wife, does not vest him with such an interest therein as would pass to his assignee. (In re Wyatt, 2 N. B. R. 94; 1 Chi. Leg. News, 107; Fed. Cas. 18106.) The legal title to a policy of insurance on the life of a husband, taken out by him for the benefit of his wife, is vested in the wife and cannot be assigned by him (In re Bear and Steinberg, 11 N. B. R. 46; 1 Cent. Law J. 607; Fed. Cas. 1178); and a bankrupt whose wife takes out a policy of insurance on her own life for his benefit, pays the premiums out of her separate estate, and dies after the adjudication of bankruptcy, is entitled to the proceeds of such policy as against his assignee. (In re Owen & Murrin, 8 N. B. R. 6; Fed. Cas. 10627.) Where a bankrupt, when solvent, conveys land to his wife, reserving a power of revocation and appointment to other uses, such power does not pass to the assignee. (Jones, Ass., v. Clifton et al., 19 N. B. R. 424; 101 U. S. 225.) Where real estate is conveyed to a bankrupt and his wife to be held in entirety, and the wife obtains a decree of divorce, if the divorce operate to transform the joint tenancy into a tenancy in common, the interest of the bankrupt as tenant in common is a subsequent acquisition which cannot be claimed by his assignee. (In re Benson, 16 N. B. R. 377; 8 Biss. 116; Fed. Cas. 1328.) Where a debtor files his petition in bankruptcy after the passage of an act restoring the common-law right of dower, and dies after issuance of the warrant in bankruptcy, the wife is entitled to dower in lands owned by the bankrupt at the date of filing of the petition, but she is not entitled to exempted personal property. (In re Hester, 5 N. B. R. 285; Fed. Cas. 6437.) Where there is at the time of filing of the petition an equitable interest in a bankrupt which passes to the assignee, the widow is entitled to one-third of such interest absolutely as against the assignee. (Warford, Ass., v. Noble et al., 19 N. B. R. 440.) Where a wife's right of dower is established against the assignee, an exception to the confirmation of the sale of real estate, by the purchaser, on the ground that such sale was subject to the dower right, when it was stated at the sale that the property would be conveyed free from all incumbrances, will be sustained. (In re Angier, 4 N. B. R. 199; 1 Amer. Law T. Rep. Bankr. 248; Fed. Cas. 388.) Where a wife executes a mortgage on her realty to secure a loan, the money obtained being used by her husband to pay his own debts, the amount exceeding what he would be entitled to by the curtesy, and

he and the wife unite in a general assignment of all his property, expressly reserving that of the wife, and the wife dies, and her realty being sold realizes a sum greater than the incumbrances, the heirs or representatives of the wife are entitled to the fund. (Shippen and Robbins' Appeal, 15 N. B. R. 553.)

The relation of assignee to choses in action.—The husband has a right to the chose in action of the wife, and the law reduces it into his possession. The bankrupt law gives over all that the husband had to the assignee. The question of survivorship is laid aside by the bankruptcy. (In re Boyd, 5 N. B. R. 199; 2 Hughes, 349; Fed. Cas. 1745.) A claim against the government for property of a bankrupt destroyed "during the war" will pass to his assignee (Phelps, Ass., v. McDonald et al., 16 N. B. R. 217); also a claim against the United States for cotton seized by the military forces thereof during the war of the rebellion. (Erwin v. United States, 19 N. B. R. 172; 97 U. S. 392; Phelps, Ass., v. McDonald et al., 19 N. B. R. 187; 99 U. S. 298.) Where, under state laws, convicts may be hired in any number not exceeding one hundred in any one contract, and a bankrupt before his bankruptcy executes four contracts with different sureties for one hundred convicts, each of the contracts is valid. (In re Southwestern Car Co., 19 N. B. R. 404; 9 Biss. 76; Fed. Cas. 13192.) A party who purchases a chose in action from the assignee cannot maintain an action thereon in his own name in a state court where the laws of the state do not permit an assignee of a chose in action to sue in his own name. (Leach v. Greene, 12 N. B. R. 376.) A voluntary assignee is a mere representative of the assignor and takes his choses in action, not as a purchaser for value, but subject to all the equities attaching to them. (City Bank of Harrisburg v. Sherlock, 16 N. B. R. 62.) Choses in action that do not pass to the assignee.- Rights of action for torts to the debtor's person do not pass to the assignee (Wright, etc. v. Bank, 18 N. B. R. 87; 18 Alb. Law T. 115; 10 Chi. Leg. News, 348; 6 Reporter, 229; 26 Pittsb. Leg. T. 11; Fed. Cas. 18078; Noonan v. Orton, 12 N. B. R. 405); nor do choses in action held by the bankrupt in a fiduciary capacity (In re Bank of Madison, 9 N. B. R. 184; 5 Biss. 515; Fed. Cas. 890); nor an action for the malicious abuse of the garnishee process (Noonan v. Orton, 12 N. B. R. 405); nor a cause of action ex delicto (In re Brick, 19 N. B. R. 508); nor a chose in action of a wife not reduced to possession by her husband. (Wickham, Ass., v. Valle's Executors et al., 11 N. B. R. 83; Fed. Cas. 17613.) A claim for compensation for the destruction of a vessel by a Confederate cruiser, equipped and sent out in England, may be transferred to the wife at a time when the claimant is free from debt. (Williamson et al., Ass., v. Colcord and Wife, 13 N. B. R. 319; 1 Hask. 620; Fed. Cas. 17752.) A chose in action which is not negotiable, and on which the assignee must sue in the name of the assignor, does not become a mutual debt or credit in the hands of the assignee, so as to be a matter of set-off. (Rollins, Ass., v. Twitchell & Co., 14 N. B. R. 201; 2 Hask. 66; 5 Amer. Law Rec. 247; Fed. Cas. 12027.)