Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 6.djvu/185

 m BB EEINGB. 173 �debt for $1,255.40 beforethe appKeation for discHarge -was made, and who afterwards, obtaining notes and checks of the bankrupt for about $300, without paying any consideration therefor, proved them on the day before the hearing, and filed a new consent for the diseharge. According to bis tes- timony in chief he was moved to do this upon the distinct verbal promise of the bankrupt • (1) that he would pay him ail that he ever owed him when he got able, and (2) because the bankrupt, in consideration of the crediter aiding him to procure bis diseharge, acknowledged the existence of a hith- erto unacknowledged debt for borrowed money, and promised that he would see it right. It is true that the witness, on his cross-examination by the bankrupt's attorney, gave a broad, naked^enial that any such promises were made, but he does not explain why he had asserted these facts on his principal examination, and ail the circumstances of the transaction indicate that his first statements were true. He was a per- sonal friend of the bankrupt, and I can find stronger reasons for his deniai of the promise after he was led to understand that it would operate injuriously on the question of discharge, than I can find for his original testimony, if it had no exist- ence in fact. Whether such inducements, held out by the bankrupt to the crediter, constitute a pecuniary consideration or obligation, depend upon the question whether the creditor can enforce the payment of his claims against the bankrupt under such promises. �I will dismiss from consideration the promise .secondly above stated, where the bankrupt acknowledged the debt for borrowed money, and said "he would see it right. " I think fluch an expression is too vague to revive a debt which has been discharged. The supreme court, in Allen v. Ferguson, 18 Wall. 3, held that the promise by which a discharged debt is revived must be clear and distinct. In that case, after the debtor had applied for the benefit of the bankrupt act, and while the proceedings Were still pending, he wrote to one of his creditors : "Be satisfied; ail will be right. I in- tend to pay ail my just debt s, if money can be made out of hired labor." And in a postscript he added: "Ail will be ��� �