Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/849

 IN EE FBAKKLIN M. KETCHUM. 8el �bankrupt to do to make the right available to the assignee Le •will be required to do. �I think the case cannot be distinguished in prînciple from the case of Gallagher v. Lane, 19 N. B. E. 224, in which it ■was determined that a Washington market lease was prop- erty that belonged to the assignee. As in that case the con- sent of the city was necessary to a transfer, so here the con- sent of a committee of the stock exchange is necessary to a transfer of this right. The seat, however, bas an actual pecuniary value, -which the rules of the society, as inter- preted and applied in practice, permit the holder. to real- ize, by a sale and transfer. There is no practical dilBculty in effecting a transfer of this right or interest for a pecuniary consideration, subjeet to the condition that the debts of the present holder to members are first paid; and the right or privilege is to ail intenta and purposes a business right or privilege, useful for business purposes only. I see nothing in the rules of the exchange which renders it impossible for the seat to be disposed of by the assignee in bankruptcy, with the co-oporation of the bankrupt, subjeet to the condition above mentioned. �The equity of the creditera in the matter îs a.s obvious aa in the case of the market lease. This seat in the board waa actually used as part of the business capital of these bank- rupts as stock-brokers. To sufifer the bankrupt still to hold it virtually withdraws several thousand dollars in value of their business assets from the creditors. �In the case of Hyde v. Woods, 4 Otto, 523, I understand it to be distinctly intimated that membership in a stock board, ■where the transferee of a seat cannot become a member except by election, is property which will pass to the assignee in bankruptcy, subjeet to a similar condition as to debts due to other members. The provision giving members a right Bomewhat in the nature of life insurance, is merely an inci- dent of membership and a mere contingency, and does net, in my JTidgment, take this business privilege or asset ont of the category of business property. I think this particular feature ��� �