Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 6.djvu/135

 EHODE ISLAND HOSPITAL TRUST CO. V. HAZARD. 123 �because Copelin has not taken charge of the business as he ■was expected to do, and Mr. Lackey's answer is an offer te rescind upon repayment of the money paid, with interest, and a considerable bonus. There were severai other ratiu- cations. �It was not until October, 1873, after the large profit of the English sale had failed to be realized, and after the change of time known as the "crisis" of that year had set in, that Mr. Copelin's friends proeured him to be adjudged insane, and that the guardian wrote the letter avoiding this sale. Upon a remonstrance by the defendant, who wrote in vindi- cation of the honesty of the transaction on his part, the guardian replied that the question was merely one of capac- ity to contract. The bill does not rely wholly upon the insanity of Copelin, but the evidence requires me 'to decide the case exclusively upon that point ; because I am satisfied that the sale was not fraudulent, and that, if it were voidable for that cause, it has been ratified. �The plaintiffs maintain that Copelin was incapable of making or ratifying a contract in February, 1871, and in- capable of appointing an attorney in July, 1871, when he went to Europe, and left fuU powers with Mr. Lackey. �It is not easy for the most honest and careful witnesses, looking back after an interval of years, to fix with any degree of accuracy the date of acts and conversations, each of which was wholly unimportant to them at the time ; such as that six years or more ago they heard Copelin make an extrava- gant statement, or saw him do something odd and unusual. Most of the witnesses in this case decline to fix these remin- iscences with positive dates. Certain things are proved, and certain things have not been proved. Copelin was a man of wealth and enterprise, largely concerned in business of va- rious kinds, and having the control pf still larger sums than he himself owned, belonging to his wife and her family. He was a director inmany of the principal joint-stock companies in St. Louis. In the course of some months near about, but in most cases later than, the time of the purchase of this mine, he made other bargains of doubtful wisdom. In the ��� �