Trustee in Bankruptcy v. Mercantile Trust & Deposit Co.

ROSE, Circuit Judge.

Adjudication in bankruptcy of the stock brokerage firm of Smith, Lockhart & Co., herein called the bankrupt, was made upon a petition filed at 12:30 in the afternoon of August 9, 1922. Subsequent investigation ’demonstrated that its insolvency was of long standing, but before the day upon which legal proceedings were instituted that fact does not appear to have been known to any one outside the bankrupt’s offices. It banked with the Mercantile Trust Company, hereinafter styled the Mercantile. It is not claimed that at any time prior to the day on- which the petition in…