Page:United States Reports, Volume 209.djvu/404

 378 OCTOBER TERM, 1907. Opim'on of the Court. 09 U.S. manner he secured the privilege of selling when necessary for his protection. The risk of the venture is entirely upon the customer. He profits if it succeeds; he loses if it fails. The broker gets out of the transaction, when closed in accordance with the under- standing of the parties, his commission and interest upon the advances, and nothing else. That such was the arrangement between the parties is shown in the testimony of the broker's agent, who testified "if these stocks carried for J. M. Shaw & Company made a profit, that profit belongs to Shaw & Com- pany over and above what he owed us." When Young, the agent of Shaw & Company, demanded the stocks, their right of ownership in them was recognized, and, while pledged, they were under the control of the broker, were promptly redeemed and turned over to the customer. Consistently with the terms of the contract, as .understood by both parties, the broker could not have declined to thus redeem and turn over the stock, and when adjudicated a bankrupt his trustee had no better rights, in the absence of fraud or preferential transfer, than the bankrupt himself. qecurity Warehousing Co. v. Hand, 206 U.S. 415, 423; Thornp- sea v. Fairbanks, 196 U.S. 516, 526; Humphr v. Tatman, 198 U.S. 91; York Man']'g Co. v. Cassell, 201 U.S. 344, 352. It is objected to this view of the relation of customer and broker that the broker was not obliged to return the very stocks pledged, but might substitute other certificates for those received by him, and that this is inconsistent with owner- ship on the part of the customer, and shows a proprietary interest of the broker in the shares; but this contention loses sight of the fact that the certificate of shares of stock is not the property itself, it is but the evidence of property in the shares. The certificate, as the term implies, but certifies the ownership of the property and rights in the corporation repre- sented by the number of shares named. A certificate of the same number of shares, although printed upon different paper and bearing a different number, rcpre-

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