Samuel Freeman Miller

“ Whether it is sufficient to establish it or not it was for the jury to say, if they were properly instructed, and if no improper testimony was admitted. It is obvious that there is sufficient testimony to justify a jury in the inference that Mr. Klein was the presiding genius in the appropriation and distribution of the assets of Strauss & Levy.
Before we come to the matters on which the assignments of error are made, it is proper to make one or two things a little more clear than they seem at first sight. The transfer of the notes and accounts of Strauss & Levy to Frieberg, Klein & Co. ”

“ The whole case was before the jury. The insolvency of Strauss & Levy was known, or might have been known, to Klein; and therefore, when he undertook to deal with the assets of this insolvent firm by taking a very large part of it in payment of his own debt, a circumstance which he knew must leave many other creditors either wholly or partly unprotected, and without means for payment, it was proper that all his dealings in that matter should be fair and honest; that his claim should be a just one; that he should receive no more than what was reasonably necessary to pay his debt ”

“ If the transfer of these choses in action to the garnishees had been a fair assignment by way of security out of which they were to pay their debt, if so much of it could be collected, then the remainder of the choses in action, whether valuable or not, could be returned by them without liability; but, as we have seen, the case goes upon the idea of a fraudulent conversion by Frieberg, Klein & Co. of assets of the insolvent debtors. ”