Pankey v. Nolan
Pankey v. Nolan
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
The defendant in error brought against the plaintiff in error, his action of debt, in the circuit court of Williamson county. The defendant in the court below pleaded, 1st. Nil Debet; 2d. The Statute of Limitations for six years; and upon which issue was taken; and, 3d. His discharge as a bankrupt, under the bankrupt law of the United States, after the cause of action had arisen, and before suit was brought.
The plaintiff below replied, that the money sued for was
The defendant rejoined, that the fact stated in the replication was not true.
The facts, upon the trial of the issues before the jury, appears, from the bill of exceptions, to have been, that in 1838, W. R. Barrow, in Louisiana, paid to the defendant, for the plaintiff, a check on the Land Bank of New Orleans, for $282 75, which defendant exchanged for money on the Citizens’ Bank of Mississippi — Mr. H. R. W. Hill having told him arrangement had been made, or would be made, for its reception by the Nashville Banks. The plaintiff would not receive that money, unless the defendant would sustain the loss of discount; which he refused. The court charged the jury, that, if the defendant received ■ the account upon Barrow from the plaintiff, “under an agreement that he would take it to the South and collect it for the plaintiff, and remit or bring the proceeds to the plaintiff, and, instead of doing so, he appropriated the proceeds to his own use, such receiving of the account and proceeds would be in a fiduciary character, within the provisions of the bankrupt act, and the defendant, in that case, could not avail himself of his discharge in bankruptcy.”
The first section of the act referred to, provides, that “all persons whatever, residing in any State, Territory, or District, of the United States, owing debts, which shall not have been created in consequence of a defalcation as a public officer, or as an executor, or administrator, or trustee, or, while acting in any other fiduciary capacity,” shall, on compliance with the requisitions of the bankrupt law, be entitled to a discharge under it.
Two decisions, giving a construction to this section of the statute, and defining the character of debts expressed by its provisions, both made in the year 1844, have been brought to our notice. If they had been before his honor, the circuit Judge, no doubt his charge would have been different. The first is the case of Chapman vs. Forsyth and others, decided in the Supreme Court of the United States. 2 Howard, 202-209. The court, in that case, say, that the second point in
Let the verdict and judgment be,set aside.
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