Francis v. . N.Y. B. El. R.R. Co.

The sole question in this case is whether the offer to return the stock certificates was sufficient to enable the plaintiff to rescind; and that inquiry turns in the end upon the effect of those certificates as a transfer of the stock. The certificates are not the stock, but the evidence of its ownership. When the plaintiff accepted the stock in consideration of the rights which he transferred, that stock became his, and the certificate given him was the company's acknowledgment of that ownership. After receiving it he could transfer the stock to whom he pleased. He did transfer it, formally,…