Page:United States Reports, Volume 209.djvu/408

 382 OCTOBER TERM, 1907. Opinion of the Court. 209 U.S. to deliver them to the customer upon the payment of so much money, and until the money was. paid the rght to have per- formance did not accrue. In Coyell v. Loud, 135 Massachusetts, 41, the right of the broker was considered after the customer had refused to pay the necessary margin, and after the custmncr had requested the broker to do the best he could for him and to sell the stck at the broker's board without notice, and it was held tlmt un- der such circumstances the broker was not liable for conversion. In Weston v. Yrdan, 168 Maachusetts, 401, the question was as to the relation between customer and broker after the broker had parted with the phares after repeated demands by the customer and rdfusal by the broker to deliver the shares, and it was held that a valid cause of action arose in favor of the customer, whether for breach of contract, or for conversion, it matters not. In Chase v. Boston, 180 Massachusetts, 459, the opinion is by Chief Justice Holmes, and the question directly decided is whether a broker who held shares of stock in his own name, and which he carried for his customer on margin, Was required to pay a city tax upon the value. It was held that he was. In that case the learned justice said: "No doubt, whichever view be taken, tilere will be anomalies, and no doubt it is possible to read into either a sufficient num- ber of implied understandings to make it consistent with self. Purchases on margin certainly retain some of the clmr- acteristies of ordinary single purchases by an agent, out of which they grew. The broker buys and is expocted to buy stock from third persons to the amount of the order. Roths- N.Y. 425. He charges his customer a commission. He credits him with dividends and charges him with assessments on stock. However the transaction is closed, the profit or loss is the customer's. But none of these features is decisive." And while the rule dating back to the decision of Chief Jus- tice Shaw in 15 Gray was recognized as the law of Massachu-

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