Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 5.djvu/303

 6WAK ». EOBINBOK. 291 �was not properiy b6 appropriated; or that the said debt on bond and mortgage is not paid, extinguished, and discharged; or that said entry of satisfaction should be decreed to be void ; or that said bond and mortgage should be assigned and de- livered up to them; or that said mortgage should be decreed to be a lien upon said purchase money; or that any sum should be paid to them by this defendant by reason of any allegations in the bill contained, �The defendant further claims that on the first of August, 1873, the bankrupt, being insolvent, or in contemplation of insolvency, within four months before the filing of a petition in bankruptcy against him, with a view of giving a preference to the said complainants, did make an assignment of the said 20 shares of stock to them, — they, the said complainants receiving the said assignment, then having reasonable cause to believe the said Graves was then insolvent, — and that such assignment was made in fraud of the provisions of the bank- rupt act, and that by reason thereof the said sale of stock was and is void ; and, further, such alleged sale was not made in the usual and ordinary course of business of the said debtor, Thomas J. Graves ; and also alleging that the com- plainants, having reasonable cause to believe the said bank- rupt to be insolvent, or to be in contemplation of insolvency, by reason of the accceptance of the assignment as aforesaid, hindered and impeded the operation of the said bankrupt acts. This is substantially the defence of the assignee of the bankrupt. • �The Aid Loan has put in an.answer admitting the sale and facts as stated by the complainants, but denying that they ever acquired any right, title, or interest, in law or equity, in the said stock by reason of the trattsfer of Graves, the bankrupt, to them. The Aid Loan has ho pecuniary interest in this suit; its mortgage is paid and satisfied; it has no claim on the shares of stock aforesaid whatever, and the case will be considered on bill of complainants, the answefr of assignee, and testimony taken in the Cause. It is proper to observe that this Aid Loan stock, the snbieptof the present ����