Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 3.djvu/902

 BBADLEY V. AOAMS EXPBBSS 00. 895 �the prohibited aet may be done to constitute it a sufficient ground for withholding a discharge. �I think there was uo error in the former decision refusing the discharge. ���Beadlby and others, Assignees, etc., v. Adams Expbess Co. (GvrcuU GouH, D. Massachusetts. ëeptemberSO, 1880.) �1. BAîîKErpTCT— Sectjbbd Cbeditoii— Pboof of Debt— Bev. St. § 5076. A secured creditor, being placed in a difficult position, sold, in the Iionest exercise of his best discretion, bef ore the confirmation of an assignee in bankruptcy, the securities, theu deemed worthless, and realizod a considerable sum for the same. Edd, that the district jndge had power to conflrm such sale, as if made after the confirma- tion of the assignee, and by previous authority, and that proof for the remainder of the debt sbould be allowed. �The Boston, Hartford & Erie Eailroad Company and the Adams Express Company entered into an arrangement for the conduct of the express business over the line of the rail- road, by whioh the express company had a valuable monop- oly granted them, and in consideration thereof lent the rail- road company $200,000, which were secured by two notes of that company, and by a pledge of 10,000 shares of its stock, with the right also on the part of the express company to apply to the debt, from time to time, a certain portion of the sums which would come due from them to the railroad com- pany. �The railroad company became insolvent, and a petition for adjudication of bankruptcy was filed against it in Massachu- setts, under which it was adjudged bankrupt in December, 1870. See Adams v. Boston, Hartford e Erie R. Cd 1 Holmes, 30. Similar proeeedings were afterwards taken in the Southern district of New York and in Connecticut, which resulted in adjudications in those districts. In ail three cases applications were made to the circuit court for a reversai or modification of the deerees, which resulted in the affirmance of the decree in Massachusetts, (Sweatt v. Boston, Hartford e ����