In re Carrier
In re Carrier
Opinion of the Court
Charles Ross, the plaintiff in the judgment, had no title to the check upon which he sued, as against the assignee in bankruptcy. It was transferred to him ,by Baum after his adjudication in bankruptcy, when it belonged to the assignee. If the respondent, Aaron, can hold the judgment obtained upon this check as against the assignee in bankruptcy,, he must show (and the burden is upon him) that he is a bona fide purchaser for value without notice. An examination of the testimony shows that he has failed in this respect. A drunken man whom he does not know is brought to him, after business hours, by another drunken man, whom he knows to be an adjudicated bankrupt, and'he gives the latter $5, and receives from the former a paper purporting to be an assignment, written across a scrap of foolscap, of a judgment for $492, with interest from July 17, 1875, against Henry Metzgar. The paper is neither dated, under seal, nor witnessed; nor does it state the court, nor the county or state, in which the judgment was recovered. Ross testifies that the $5 was only borrowed, and the judgment assigned as security, although the assignment is'absolute on its face. The transaction was so trifling that Mr. Aaron failed to remember it when his attention was first called to the matter, and he could not remember the details of the transaction when called to the witness stand. It is idle to characterize this as a business transaction. It was evidently a case, with which every one is familiar, of an application by an old acquaintance for a trifling loan, and the assignment was probably prepared by the bor
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