Stanley Matthews

“ Each one could be sued apart from the others, and if one trustee is sued alone, all the trustees shall contribute a ratable share of the amount paid on such judgment. If in each suit against each trustee the whole evidence of the original claim had to be gone into and separate verdicts rendered, which might be for very dissimilar amounts, the contribution would become a matter more involved than the original claim ”

“ New Orleans, 109 U.S. 285, S.C.. 3 SUP. CT. REP. 211, that a liability for a tort, created by statute, although reduced to judgment by a recovery for the damages suffered, did not thereby become a debt by contract in the sense of the constitution of the United States forbidding state legislation impairing its obligation, for the reason that 'the term 'contract' is used in the constitution in its ordinary sense as signifying the agreement of two or more minds, for considerations proceeding from one to the other, to do or not to do certain acts. ”

“ This was held to be erroneous on the ground that the judgment was not competent as evidence of any debt due from the corporation, and that no action could be maintained thereon against the trustees under this section of the act. Judge PECKHAM, delivering the unanimous opinion of the court, said: 'It will be perceived that this is a highly penal act, extremely rigorous in its provisions. It is absolute that the trustees shall be liable for all the debts of the company, if the report be not made, no matter by whose default. ”

“ The mischief to be prevented by its requirements has no relation to liabilities of that description. The creditors to be protected are those only who become such by voluntary transactions, in reference to which, for their benefit, the information becomes important as to the debts of the company. ”

“ White, ubi supra, the judgment sued on was not recovered until after the alleged default on the part of the defendants, as trustees, in filing their report; whereas, in the present case, the default is alleged to have occurred after the recovery of the judgment sued on. But, in Miller v. White, the plaintiffs did aver defaults occurring after the rendition of the judgment, although none were proved, except one, occurring before it was recovered ”

“ White, ubi supra, has never been overruled nor questioned by the New York court of appeals. On the contrary, it has been repeatedly and expressly cited and approved, and either followed or distinguished from the case under decision in the following cases: Rorke v. ”