Industrial Export & Import Corp. v. Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corp.

Defendant is a banking corporation with branches in Shanghai, China, and in New York. Plaintiff is a domestic corporation, but at the times in question all of its officers and its sole stockholder were residents of and carried on the business of the corporation in Shanghai. That business was the importation of leather into China for the manufacture of shoes.

In October of 1941, plaintiff, desiring to import some leather, sought the necessary exchange, namely, United States dollars. At that time there existed in China an agency of the Chinese G-overnment called the Stabilization Board. The…