James Moore Wayne

“ This rests upon the principle that an insolvent debtor has a legal right to convey his estate to whom he pleases for a valuable consideration, although it may benefit some and prejudice others of his creditors. The answer of the assignees states that, with one exception, all the creditors of Waterman residing in Rhode Island, and many of the creditors residing out of that State and in New York and elsewhere, have complied with the conditions of said assignment, and become parties thereto by releasing Waterman ”

“ By the laws of the State of New York, an insolvent's assignment, containing the clause requiring creditors to release or forfeit their dividends, and directing them to be paid in that case to the assignor, is fraudulent as to creditors, and is void. ”

“ POINT THIRD.-The relief sought by the appellants cannot be granted consistently with the rights of other creditors of Waterman, who are not now before the court.
POINT FOURTH.-A conflict between the lex fori and the lex loci does not necessarily or properly arise. The important element of a conflict of lien is wanting. The lex fori can operate upon the persons only of the defendants; the property, the subject-matter of the controversy, is not within its jurisdiction. ”

“ Hence it follows that a transfer of property by its owner, whether inter vivos or post mortem, valid by the law of his domicil, will, if made before the law of another country has actually attached upon the property by a proceeding against its owner, be esteemed valid within every other jurisdiction where the property may be. ”

“ These authorities go as far as authority can go to establish the principle, that it is not only within the power, but it is the duty, of a State to deny to strangers privileges not permitted to its own citizens. ”

“ It follows the law of the person. The disposition and transmission of it, either by succession or the act of the owner, are subject to that law. It cannot be legally acquired by another without the actual or constructive assent of its owner-actual, if he voluntarily surrenders it; constructive, when the law deprives him of it by a proceeding to which he is an indispensable party. ”

“ It is quite clear that this would have been no justification, had the assignees been citizens of the State of New York; nor can their citizenship of Rhode Island protect them in New York for an act of wrongful intermeddling with the estate of an insolvent in New York, in fraud of New York creditors. ”

“ None of the authorities cited by the appellants authorize the granting of the relief prayed for by them. Ingraham v. Geyer (13 Mass., 146) turned upon the point that the attaching 'creditor had actually seized the debt before it was paid over to the assignees.' As the complainants here have no lien, the principle of this decision, if there by any in it, does not apply. ”