Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 7.djvu/299

 GRAY 1). NATIONAL STBAM-SHIP CO. 2g7 �tween the twp companies and as respects the plaintiff, or whether the execution of the instrument of August 16, 1867, and the delivery of the ships thereunder, was such a trans- fer of title. •.,, . �It is plain that the companies were two distinct corpora- tions. The bill does not allege otherwise. There was np change of the name of the Navigation Company to the name of the Steamship Company. The instrument of August 16, 1867, shows there were two corporations, and so does all the evidence, and so does the bill. The consideration in that instrument for the sale of the property was a good and valid one; and the subsequent dealing of the grantee with the property, unquestioned, must be accepted as evidence thOft the Steam-^hip Company performed its covenants as to its shajres to be issued to the shareholders in the Navigation Company, and thus paid the consideration. When paid, it related back.to the delivery of the property, which was Au- gust 16, 1867. The title of the Steam-ship Compa^y to the ships became an equitable title to them, as of that date, so far as any cause pf action growing out of said collision is con- cemed. What other title, by bill of sale or otherwise, the Steam-ship Company might haye found necessary, in suits brought by it, or to protect themselves against a subsequent bona fide purchaser of the ships, without actual notice, or notice by a change of name on the registry, is of no impor- tance in this suit. The old English statutory rule that no transfer of a ship was valid or effectuai for any purpose, in law or equity, unless such transfer was by bill of sale, con- taining a recital of the certificate of registration, bas been. abol- ished ; and by section 3 of the act of July 29, 1862, (25 and 26 Vict. c. 63,) it was provided that, with certain exceptions, not important to this case, equities might be enforced against owners of ships, in respect of their interest therein, in the same manner as equities might be enforced against them in respect of any other personal property. The instrument of August 1 6, 1867, accompariied by a delivery of the ships, was a sufficient transfer of the title of the ships, as respected the cause of action growing out of the collision, to have sustained ��� �