| 1805.
CHAP. 64.
Passed Jan. 25, 1806. |
LAWS OF MARYLAND.
CHAP. LXIV.
An Act for the relief of Richard Gittings and Lambert Smith, of
Baltimore
County, Insolvent Debtors. Lib. TH. No. 1, fol. 67. |
Preamble.
* Ch. 44.
† Ch. 34. |
WHEREAS Richard Gittings and Lambert Smith, heretofore
carrying
on trade in Baltimore as copartners, by their petition to this
general assembly have set forth, that having contracted sundry
debts which they were unable to discharge, they applied to the general
assembly, at November session, eighteen hundred, for an
act of insolvency, and that an act* did accordingly pass in their favour;
that they thereupon made their application to the chancellor, as
the said act directed, for the benefit thereof, offering to comply with
all the terms of the said act, and exhibiting, with their petition,
the several lists, and the written consent of two-thirds in value of
their creditors, thereby required; that one of their creditors objected
before the chancellor to their obtaining any relief under the said
act, whereupon the chancellor directed, that certain issues, to the
number of three, founded upon the allegations of the said objecting
creditor, should be tried in the general court for the western shore;
that the last of the said issues , being afterwards withdrawn, the
other two, relating to certain preferences given by the petitioners
to Thomas and Samuel Hollingsworth, and to William Taylor and
William P. Matthews, who had become securities for the petitioners,
by endorsing their paper, or in custom-house bonds, or otherwise,
were tried at May term, eighteen hundred and four, in the
absence of the petitioners, upon a statement of facts agreed to by
their counsel, without their approbation or knowledge, and that the
jury, upon that statement, and under the direction of the court as
to the law arising thereon, found a verdict against the petitioners;
that in consequence of that verdict, so founded upon the opinion of
the said court, and returned to the court of chancery, the petitioners
have been deprived of the benefit of the said act of insolvency,
although the preferences imputed to them as undue and improper,
upon strict notions of law, had been long before sanctioned by the
act of April session, seventeen hundred and eighty-seven, † entitled,
An act respecting insolvent debtors, and were given by the petitioners
under a sense of justice and moral obligation, and a sincere
belief of their legality, countenanced by the general opinion of
the merchants of Baltimore, that such preferences were proper, and
by the example of the numerous persons, who at the same session of
eighteen hundred, applied for, and actually obtained, legislative relief;
that the petitioners, under the order of the chancellor, in the
year eighteen hundred and one, gave up to the trustee, then appointed,
all the property they had in the world, several as joint,
the proceeds whereof are in the hands of the said trustee, and are
now willing to give up to their partnership creditors whatever property
they may since have acquired; and the said petitioners having
prayed, that upon a view of all the circumstances of their case,
by which it is distinguished from ordinary cases of this description,
the general assembly would pass an act, by which they might, notwithstanding
the said preferences, be effectually relieved from their
partnership debts; and this general assembly being of opinion, that
under the said circumstances, the prayer of the said petitioners is
reasonable, therefore, |
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