Page:United States Reports, Volume 209.djvu/399

 209 U. $. Opinion of the Court. ited to Shaw & Company, and a check was given by them, through the Beacon Trust Company, to the order of Brown, Riley & Company, for $34,919.62, ahd the securities to the value of $45,583.75 were turned over to them. None of the certificates of stock which Brown delivered to Shaw & Com- pany were the identical certificates which they had delivered to Brown as margin. Two certain bonds, known as the "Shan- non bonds," had been deposited with Brown. Among the creditors (customers) of Brown on the final day of settlement there were a number of general customers upon transactions in purchase and sale of stocks by Brown as broker, similar to the transactions in the purchase and sale of stocks by Brown as broker for Shaw & Company. On July 27, 1903, Brown made an aign:m. ent, and was adjudicated a bankrupt within four months, and petitioner in this case, Henry Arnold Richardson, was elected trustee. It was conceded by plaintiff's counsel that it was the custom of the market to deliver shares from broker to customer of the same amount without regard to whether they were the iden- tical shares received. This suit was brought to recover the $5,000 paid to Shaw & Company June 24, 1903, which sum, it is alleged, was paid to them as excessive margins, and, it is alleged, enabled them to obtain a preference as one of the creditors of Brown.' The second cause of action in the suit states that Shaw & Company are imlebted to Brown's estate in the sum of $10,664.13, being the amount he transferred for their benefit, as above set forth. At the close of the plaintiff's case he requested to go to the jury upon the issue of defendant's knowledge of Brown's insolv- ency. The court held that no preference was shown and di- rected a verdict for defendants. The judgment was affirmed. 147 Fed. Rep. 659, 665. The ground on which the counl for the petitioner predi~ cate the alleged preferences in thi case is that when the stock- broker Brown was approached for e settlement of the 'rans-

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