Laws of 1911, and Declaring an Emergency.

Be it Enacted by the People of the State of Oklahoma: That section 2, chapter 72 of the Sess. be, and the same is hereby amended to

Section. 1. Laws of 1911, read as follows:

Section. 2. Any such treasurer who violates sec 1. of this act, shall be gulty of a misdemeanor, and upon con. viction therefor, shall be fined in the sum of not less than fifty dollars nor more than two hundred dollars, and shall be subject to removal from office."

Section. 2. An Emergency is hereby declared to exist for the immediate preservation of the public peace and safety, by reason whereof this act shall be in force and effect from and after its passage and approval. Approved March. 17, 1913

BANKRUPTCY CASES.

Bankruptcy-Validity of Chattel Mortgage on Shifting Stock of Merchandise.

A chattel mortgage given by a bankrupt on a stock consisting of wines, liquors and cigars, etc., which with the knowledge of the mortgagee, were bought and sold and dealt in from day to day in the usual course of trade, all of the proceeds being retained by the bankrupt and no part being turned over to the mortgagee, is invalid.

In re Noethen, 29 Am. B. R. 234.

1. Where a secured creditor vcluntarly comes into the Bankruptcy Court and asserts a claim to property in the trustees' possess, the proceeding is one in equity and the decree is reviewable by the Circuit Court of Appeals both as to law and fact; § 566, Rev. Stat., is inapplicable and the whole case is open under $128, Judi

cial Code, and an appeal lies to this court under $241, Judicial Code.

2. A Contract for loaning money secured by accounts payable to the borrower, who is to act as agent for the lender in their collction, providing that the lender shall in pursuance of a provision in a bond of indemnity given by third parties, examiue the accounts and books of the borrower monthly and receive a compensation therefor equivalent to a specified per cent of the accounts remaining due, Held, in this case to have been made in good faith and not for the purpose of avoiding the usury laws, and not to be a usurious and void contract under the laws of New York.

3. On an inqury whether the contract is one forbid. den by law, evidence dehors the agreement is admissible to show that, though legal on its face, the agreement is in fact illegal.

4. Usury may be interposed as a defense even if it contradicts the agreement.

5. BURDEN of Proof-Where the law of the State makes usury a crime, the burden is strongly on him who would avoid a debt on that ground; and where as in this case, the lender is supported by one witness who is in his employ and the borrower is supported by one disintered witness, the burden is not sustained.

United States Supreme Court, on Appeal from Circuit Court of Appeals. Decided April 7, 1913.

Houghton, Receiver vs Burden, 228 U. S. U. S. Advance Sheets, p. 161.

SEDUCTION-Judgment Not Avoided by Bankuptcy

Proceedings.

A judgment in an action in form for breach of promise to marry, wherein seduction is proven, will be presumed to have been awarded for the seduction, and so it is not dischargeable under the amendment of 1903 to section 17a (2) of the Bankruptcy Act, excepting from a bankrupt's discharge liability for the seduction of an unmarried female.

In re Warth, 29 Am. B. R. 210

Preference-Payment of Pre-existing Debt-Security for Clearance Loan.

An important decision to stockbrokers is that of Ernst v. Mechanics, & Metals Bank, 29 Am. B. R. 289, which holds that where bankrupts, who were stockholders, obtained from defendant banks at the beginning of bank. ing hours, day or clearance loans, and later in the same day, when bankrupts were insolvent and the banks had reasonable cause to believe them to be so, delivered to the banks, upon demand, a large quantity of collaterals as security, the transactions constituted preferences and the securities were recoverable by bankrupts, trustees. Seizure of Assets-Seizure by Marshal in Possession of Third Person Prior to Bankrupt's Adjudication.

Where the secretary, treasurer and general manager of a corporation was arrested on a criminal charge and a large sum of money, valuable jewelry and other property was found on his person, the marshal had power under a special warrant, issued at the instance of creditors petitioning for the corporation's adjudication in bankruptcy, to seize the property in the custody of the State sheriff as assetes of the alleged bankrupt.

Le Mast r vs. Spencer, 29 Am. B. R. 264.

SALE-By Trustee of Interest in Real Estate Fraudulently Transferred.

An important decision is that of In re Downing, 29 Am B. R. 228, where the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that a trustee in bankruptcy has a transferrable interest in real estate owned by the bankrupt and transferred by him in fraud of his creditors, even though such transfer was made prior to the four months, period, and he may sell this interest, together with the right vested in him by the Bankruptcy Act to maintain an action to set aside the transfer.

CURRENT DECISIONS OF

THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF
OKLAHOMA.

LENA PIGEON, et. al., Plaintiffs in Error.

VS.

WILLIAM BUCK, et. al., Defendants in Error.

(Rendered May 9, 1913.)

No. 3038.

Error from the District Court of Hughes County. John Caruthers, Trial Judge.—Affirmed.

Mansfield's Digest of Ark. Chap. 49, provides that on the death of a person intestate, unmarried, and leaving no children, the estate, if it come from the father, shall go to the father, and if from the mother shall go to the mother. "But if the estate be a new acquisition it shall ascend to the father for his lifetime and then descend in remainder to the collateral kindred of the intestate."

HELD, that the allotment of a full blood citizen of the Creek Nation, duly enrolled as such, who died on July 12, 1905, after receiving her certificates and patents thereto, was not a new acquisition, but came to her. by the blood of her tribal parents, who on her death took full title thereto to the exclusion of the brothers and sisters of the deceased, all of full blood. Following Shultis vs. M'Dougal, et. al., 170 Fed. 529.

(Syllabus by the Court.)

CHARLES F. BLISS, LEWIS C. LAWSON, for plaintiffs

in error.

CRUMP & SKINNER, for defendants in error.

Opinion of the Court by TURNER, J.

On September 13, 1910 plaintiffs in error, Lena Pigeon, Jimmie Larney, Joseph Pigeon and Jakeman Pigeon, the two last named minors, by Jno. Pusley their guardian, sued, in the District Court of Hughes County, the defendants in error, William Buck, Willie Harjo, John Pigeon and Mate Pigeon, to clear their title.

The petition substantially states that Lowiney Harjo, a full blood citizen of the Creek Nation and duly enrolled as such, on July 12, 1905, after receiving her certificates and patents thereto, died intestate, scized of her allotment (describing it) in the Creek Nation; that she left no child or children, or their descendants her surviving; leaving her surviving, plaintiffs: Lena Pigeon, Jimmy Larney, Joheph Pigeon and Jakeman Pigeon and her father and mother, John Pigeon and Mate Pigeon, also her husband Willie Harjo, all full blood citizens of the Creek Nation and duly enrolled as such; that thereafter the father and mother and the husband of deceased conveyed said land by warranty deed to the defendant William Buck, which was duly approved by the County Court of Hughes County and filed for record; that the plaintiff's brothers and sister of deceased are her sole heirs, and as such entitled to inherit the property because they say the same was a new acquisition; and prayed that the court so adjudge and decree and clear their title of the deeds made by the father and mother to said Buck. To the judgment of the court sustaining a demurrer to their petition, plaintiffs bring the case here.

Both sides agree that the devolution of this allotment is governed by chapter 49 of Mansfield's Digest of the Statute of Arkansas and particularly sub section 2 of Sec. 2522, construed in connection with sec. 2531. Said sub section reads:

"If there be no children, then to the father, then to