The National Bankruptcy Register; Containing Reports of the Leading Cases and Principal Rulings in Bankruptcy of the District Judges of the United States Volume 7 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1873 edition. Excerpt: ...some rights as well as the creditor, and a statute of repose is as much needed in bankruptcy matters as in any other legal proceedings. If the act of stopping payment is fraudulent, can it be indefinitely continued by constructive succession, and proceedings be commenced ten years after the first occurrence of the act 1 If so, the six months limitation in the statute is useless verbiage, and should be taken out, as it is well calculated to mislead not only merchants and traders and those who deal with them, but also lawyers. If the limitation applies in a case where there is fraud, it certainly ought to apply where there is no fraud. VVhen a trader fails to pay his commercial paper when due, or within the three days of grace allowed by the custom of merchants, he is regarded as commercially insolvent. The bankruptcy law allows fourteen additional days of grace to commercial paper, and if payment is not made within that time, the maker is insolvent in contemplation of the statute. If the statute has used onlythe words stopped or suspended payment of commercial paper, then three days of grace would have been allowed for payment by operation of the law merchant; and could it be properly said that every subsequent period of three days non-payment constituted successive acts of bankruptcy, and that the six months limitation would not apply? The additional days of grace allowed by the bankrupt law certainly cannot have the effect of rendering such limitation nugatory. "We think that this six months provision was intended by the framers of the law to operate as a limitation on bankrupt proceedings, _and was prompted by the same wise and beneficent spirit of legislation which has given...