Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“ It is in fact the general obligation of all a debtor's property that is incident to the existence of a debt; an obligation which is recognized in some degree by every system of law, and shown in ours by the invalidity of conveyances in fraud of creditors, but which in the civil law is more emphasized and expressed. ”

“ At a later date a registrar declined to recognize the mortgage as a lien upon the property, on the ground that it affected only the products to be manufactured in the plantation. He may have been wrong in his law for the reason that we have suggested, but he was plainly right in his construction of the document. There is no other recognition needing mention.
As our opinion is that the mortgage bound only the crops, it follows, without more, that the decree must be reversed. ”

“ The mortgage, after reciting a debt due from the mortgagor, Don Ramon Ruiz, to the mortgagee, Mr. William Noble, 'for the payment of the lease' on the Cacique estate, goes on the say that the mortgagor 'binds himself to pay the above-mentioned sum to his creditor Noble, with the proceeds of the first crops which may be ground,' etc. ”