creditors, by mail or otherwise, of all meetings, after the first, as may be ordered by the court.

U. S. R. S., Sec. 5096.-Preparatory to the final dividend, the assignee shall submit his account to the court, and file the same, and give notice to the creditors of such filing, and shall also give notice that he will apply for a settlement of his account, and for a discharge from all liability as assignee, at a time to be specified in such notice, and at such time the court shall audit and pass the accounts of the assignee, and the assignee shall, if required by the court, be examined as to the truth of his account, and if it is found correct, he shall thereby be discharged from all liability as assignee to any creditor of the bankrupt. The court shall thereupon order a dividend of the estate and effects, or of such part thereof as it sees fit, among such of the creditors as have proved their claims, in proportion to the respective amount of their debts.

ARTICLE V.

PARTNERSHIPS AND CORPORATIONS.

SEC. 35. Two or more persons who are partners in business may be adjudged insolvent, either on the petition

of such partners or any one of them, or on the petition of five or more creditors of the partnership, in which case an order shall be issued in the manner provided by this act, upon which all the joint stock and property of the partnership, and also all the separate estate of each of the partners, shall be taken, excepting such parts thereof as may be exempt by law, and all the creditors of the company, and the separate creditors of each partner, shall be allowed to prove their respective debts; and the assignee shall be chosen by the creditors of the copartnership, and shall also keep separate accounts of the joint stock or property of the copartnership, and of the separate estate of each member thereof, and, after deducting out of the whole amount received by such assignee, the whole amount of the expenses and disbursements, the net proceeds of the joint stock shall be appropriated to pay the creditors of the copartnership, and the net proceeds of the separate estate of each partner shall be appropriated to pay his separate creditors; and if there shall be any balance of the separate estate of any partner, after the payment of his separate debts, such balance shall be added to the joint stock for the payment of the joint creditors; and if there shall be any balance of the joint stock, after the payment of the joint debts, such balance shall be divided and appropriated to and among the separate estate of the several partners according to their respective right and interest therein, and as it would have been if the partnership had been dissolved without any insolvency; and the sum so appropriated to the separate estate of each partner shall be applied to the payment of his separate debts, and the certificate of discharge shall be granted or refused to each partner as the same would or ought to be if the proceedings had been by or against him alone under this act; and in all other respects the proceedings as to partners shall be conducted in the like manner as if they had been commenced and prosecuted by or against one person alone. If such copartners reside in different counties, that court in which the petition is first filed shall retain exclusive jurisdiction over the case, If the petition be filed by less than all the partners of a copartnership, those partners who do not join in the petition shall be ordered to show cause why they should not be adjudged to be insolv

ent in the same manner as other debtors are required to show cause upon a creditor's petition, as in this act provided.*

* U. S. R. S., Sec. 5121.-Where two or more persons who are partners in trade are adjudged bankrupt, either on the petition of such partners or of any one of them, or on the petition of any creditor of the partners, a warrant shall issue, in the manner provided by this title, upon which all the joint stock and property of the copartnership, and also all the separate estate of each of the partners, shall be taken, excepting such parts thereof as are hereinbefore excepted. All the creditors of the company, and the separate creditors of each partner, may prove their respective debts. The assignee shall be chosen by the creditors of the company. He shall keep separate accounts of the joint stock or property of the copartnership and of the separate estate of each member thereof; and after deducting out of the whole amount received by the assignee the whole of the expenses and disbursements, the net proceeds of the joint stock shall be appropriated to pay the creditors of the copartnership, and the net proceeds of the separate estate of each partner shall be appropriated to pay his separate creditors. If there is any balance of the separate estate of any partner, after the payment of his separate debts, such balance shall be added to the joint stock for the payment of the joint creditors; and if there is any balance of the joint stock after payment of the joint debts, such balance shall be appropriated to and divided among the separate estates of the several partners according to their respective right and interest therein, and as it would have been if the partnership had been dissolved without any bankruptcy; and the sum so appropriated to the separate estate of each partner shall be applied to the payment of his separate debts. The certificate of discharge shall be granted or refused to each partner as the same would or ought to be if the proceedings had been against him alone. In all other respects the proceedings against partners shall be conducted in the like manner as if they had been commenced and prosecuted against one person alone. If such copartners reside in different districts, that court in which the petition is first filed shall retain exclusive jurisdiction over the

case.

1. Partners may join or be joined in one petition so 'long as joint assets remain to be distributed; also, if there are joint debts outstanding: In re Williams & Co., 3 B. R. 286; In re Noonan, 10 Id. 331.

2. Notwithstanding one partner has, on dissolution, taken all the partnership property, and agreed to pay all partnership debts, either may petition for the benefit of the act on behalf of the firm. The creditors may proceed against the partners, unless one partner has been released by them: In re Stowers, Lowell, 528.

3. An assignment of all the interest of the retiring partner in the firm terminates the partnership: Hartough v. Hoyden, 3 B. R. 422.

4. Persons comprising one firm may petition without joining another, who has been a partner with them under another firm name: In re Mitchell, 3 B. R. 441; In re Stevens, 5 Id. 112.

5. The executor of a deceased partner can not be brought into bankruptcy, nor can possession be taken of his separate estate, which is under control of a probate court. If the surviving partner, while clothed with his rights as such, commits an act of bankruptcy, the creditors may invoke the aid of a court of bankruptcy to take out of his hands the joint assets, as well as his separate estate. Such proceeding can be taken by either a joint or separate creditor: In re Stevens, 5 B. R. 112.

6. A firm can not be adjudged bankrupt upon petition of one partner, if the others do not consent, and neither reside nor carry on business in the district: In re Martin, 6 Ben. 20.

7. Unless all the members of a firm join in the petition, those not joining must be notified in like manner as if the proceedings were on an involuntary petition: In re Lewis, 1 B. R. 329; In re Moore, 5 Biss. 79.

8. When the partners reside in different districts, and have no place of business in the district where the petition is filed, the non-resident partner can not be adjudged a bankrupt upon his own petition, unless he shall have filed a petition in the district where he resides: In re Prankhard, 1 B. R. 297. 9. When one member of a firm asks for the benefit of the bankrupt act, the question of bankruptcy becomes a legal one, and if the others object they are entitled to have the issue of bankruptcy tried and determined: In re Grady, 3 B. R. 227.

10. Where there are no assets, a member of a late partnership may, upon his individual petition, be discharged from all individual and partnership debts: In re Abbe, 2 B. R. 75.

11. Distinct firms, composed in part of different persons, can not be joined: In re Wallace & Huton, 12 B. R. 191.

12. Partners can not be adjudged bankrupts upon petition of their creditors, upon mere proof of their insolvency, without proof of the commission of an act of bankruptcy: In re Johnson, 1 N. Y. Leg. Obs. 166; In re John W. Hall, Id. 11.

13. None but the creditors of a firm can participate in the election of an assignee: In re Phelps, 1 B. R. 525; In re Scheiffer, 2 Id. 591.

14. The separate debts must be regarded as confined to debts which arise out of a liability other than, or in addition to, that resulting solely from a debt contracted by the firm: In re Long & Co., 9 B. R. 227.

15. A joint creditor having a security upon the separate estate is entitled to prove against the joint estate, without giving up his security. A creditor having a note indorsed by the firm and by one of the copartners, may prove his claim against both of the estates: In re Howard, Cole & Co., 4 B. R. 571; In re Bradley, 2 Biss. 515.

16. Money loaned upon the note of a partner for the use of the firm can not be proved against the firm: In re Herrick, 13 B. R. 312.

17. The assignee of a bankrupt partner and the remaining solvent partner are tenants in common in respect to the partnership funds, and like all tenants in common, one party can not call the joint property out of the hands of the other: Murry v. Murry, 5 Johns. Ch. 60. Each may collect debts due the firm: Id. The assignee succeeds to the rights of the bankrupt, not as a partner, but as tenant in common: Ayer v. Brastow, 5 Law Rep. 498.

18. There must be an adjudication of bankruptcy against all the partners before any steps can be taken to reach partnership assets. An assignee of the individual estate of one partner has no title to call third parties to an account for partnership property: In re Shepard, 3 B. R. 172; Amsink v. Bean, 22 Wall. 395.

19. This section, in its main features, embodies no new law. It is only declaratory of the equitable principles which the courts had adopted in the distribution of the bankrupt's assets: In re Melick, 4 B. R. 97.

20. If a transfer of the firm property to one of the copartners is made honestly, and in good faith, upon a dissolution, and for a valuable consideration, and without any fraud or collusion between the copartners to defeat the rights of the joint creditors, the joint property becomes by such transfer the separate property of such copartner: In re Long & Co., 9 B. R. 227.

21. Where only five days had intervened between the dissolution of the firm and the commencement of proceedings in bankruptcy, the transfer of the partnership property was held to be void, as a fraud on the partnership creditors, and the property so transferred was held to be a joint fund: In re Byrne, 1 B. R. 464.

22. When firm property has been transferred to a partner under an agreement to apply the proceeds of the same to the payment of the firm debts, and he has purchased other property, and mingled it with the firm property in such a manner as to make it impossible to distinguish between them, the whole should be regarded as his individual property, and liable in the first instance to his individual debts: In re H. B. Montgomery, 3 B. R. 374.

23. When the bankrupt has been a member of two separate firms, the property of each firm must be applied to the payment of its own debts in