“ Many of the defendants may prove not to be stockholders. And even those confessedly stockholders are, in respect to the matters in controversy, as much strangers to the corporation and to the estate as any other person against whom the corporation had a cause of action. The fact that an alleged debtor of a corporation is a stockholder, or even an officer, does not enable the trustee to sue him in the court of bankruptcy. ”

“ We have no occasion to consider whether a different rule applies in those cases where an order of the court of bankruptcy is a condition precedent to the existence of any liability, either because stockholders are liable only after a call, or because the liability of stockholders is pro rata and limited to such sums as may, in the aggregate, be necessary to satisfy the claims of creditors. ”

“ The amount payable by one is in no way dependent upon what is due from another. The corporation had a separate right against each alleged stockholder; and the remedy open to it was a separate action at law against each. The trustee rightly assumes that the corporation could not have brought a single suit in equity against all these stockholders, although a very large number of actions at law would be required to make collection of the balances unpaid on the stock. There was no common issue between these alleged stockholders and the corporation ”