Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 4.djvu/864

€50 FEDERAL REPORTER, �2. Receiybe— Iksoltent Life Instthance Company.— SeMi/wr^A^r, that �the insplvency and assignaient of the defendant company, and the action of the trustee in applying to the state court for aid in the administration of his trust, exhibited ail the conditions requisite to authorize this court to immediately appoint a receiver, in accordance with the application of the complainants. �3. Bame— Trustee of Insolvent Company. — Held, further, that this �court would not appoint such trustee and former vice president the receiver of the insolvent company. �4. Featto — Insolvent Life Inbubance Company — Pkoof. — The mere �fact of the failure of a life Insurance company would seem to be prima facie proof that its operations have been conducted in a fraud- aient manner ; and, if the failure is not explained by some great cas- ualty, such as a wide-spread pestilence, or sudden flnancial convul- sion, or physical calamity, it would seem to be per se proof of fraud. �i. CoNSTEUCTiVE Frattd — MANAGERS DP CoMPANT. — Such failure does not necessarily create a presumption of moral turpitude in the man- agers of the company, but it certainly does create a presumption of flnancial imbecility, or recklessness, or extravagance, or that gross negligence, which is equivalent in its consequences to fraud, and whlch a court is bound to regard as constructive fraud. �In Equity. �The facts of the case, so far as they bear upon the points ■of law decided, are recited in the opinion. �Ould e Carrington and B,. L. Maury, for complainants. �John 0. Steger, W. W, Crump, Hundley e Hunter, Sands, Varier e Leake, Keen e Davis, and others, for defendants. �Hughes, D. J. The defendant in this cause, the Piedmont & Arlington Life Insurance Company, is avowedly insolvent, and, on the thirtieth day of November ultimo, its president, vice-president, and secretary, by order of its board of direct- ors, and without previous authority from its stockholders, made a deed of assignment, by which it granted, set over, and assigned to its vice-president, Angus E. Blakey, ail its bonds, bills, notes, choses in action, and evidences of debt of -every description; ail its judgments, decrees, and liens; its mortgages, deeds of trust, and securities ; ail its ofBce furni- ture in Richmond, including desks, tables, carpets, stoves, iron safe, and other apparatus; and ail its lands, lots, tene- ments, and parcels of real property lying in the states of Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, South Carolina, Arkansas, ����