The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1876-03-02
Petition of the Assignees Of the Blue
Ridge Railroad to the Legislature.

To the Honorable Senate and House Of
Representatives Of the State Of South Car
olinG.
Your petitioners, James P. Low, John
2. Southern and George w. Williams,
assignees of the Blue Ridge Railroad
Company, respectfully show:
That the Blue Ridge Railroad Compa.
ny, in South Carolina, was duly adjudged
insolvent and bankrupt on the 22d day
of April, A. D. 1873, and that subsequent
ly, on the 18th day of July, A. D. 1878,
your petitioners were duly chosen and
appointed assignees of said bankrupt cor
poration. That your petitioners duly ac-
cepted said appointment as assignees,
and qualified as such.
That on the 25th day of July, A. D.
1873, all the estate, real and personal, of
said bankrupt, the Blue Ridge Railroad
Company, in South Carolina, was duly
assigned and conveyed by the register in
bankruptcy to your petitioners as assign
ees.
And your petitioners respectfully show
that, among the other duties imposed by
law upon them as assignees, it is their
duty to collect the various debts and as.
sets of said bankrupt corporation, and
apply them in payment, as far as posi-
bic, of the debts of the bankrupt, accord
ing to their legal priorities. Said corpo.
ration is now, so far as its property and
effects are concerned, civilly dead, and
none of its late officers or agents can law
fully recover or receive any moneys,
debts or obligations due or owing to the
estate of said bankrupt corporation, or
pay any moneys, debts or obligations due
or owing to the estate of said bankrupt
corporation to any creditor out of the
moneys, rights, credits and effects of the
bankrupt.
And your petitioners further show that
said bankrupt corporation is very heavi-
ly in debt, far beyond any possibility of
payment out of the present assets availa.
bic to your petitioners, as assignees-the
exact amount your petitioners cannot
state, as all of said debts have, as your
petitioners are informed and believe, not
yet been proved in bankruptcy.
Many of said creditors of said bank
rupt-in fact, nearly all-claim that they
gave credit to and contracted with said
Blue Ridge Railroad Company, prior to
its bankruptcy, on account of the posses
sion by it of four millions of dollars of
bonds, secured by mortgage upon the
whole estate real and personal, of the
corporation, and endorsed by the State of
South Carolina, and to the punctual pay
ment of which bonds the faith and funds
of the State were pledged. and in con-
tracing with and giving credit to said
corporation, they looked wholly to the
proceeds of these bonds for payment
That, at the time of the contraction of
their debts, the said corporation had no
other available property with which to
pay debts.
Many of said creditors claim further,
that prior to the passage of the act of
March 2, 1872, entitled "an act to relieve
the State of South Carolina of all liabili-
ties for its guaranty of the bonds of the
Blue Ridge Railroad Company, by pro-
viding for the securing and destruction
of the same," they had actually obtained
by contract a lien for advances, made in
money to said Company, on said bonds,
or a portion of them.
That they, at the instance of said cor
poration, assented>to the proposal of the
State contained in said act of March 2,
1872, and surrendered their said lien up
on said bonds, and allowed them to be
surrendered and cancelled and accepted,
in lieu thereof lien upon the revenue
bond scrip provided in said act.
Said creditors now represent, and your
petitioners believe the same to be true,
that said revenue bond scrip has been
declared null and void by the Supreme
Court of South Carolina, and their claims
against said bankrupt corporation are
hence unpaid and unsecured; and fur
ther, said bankrupt estate is totally una
BILE to pay their said claims.
Your petitioners show, that this state
of facts having been represented to them,
they presented petition to the Honora-
BILE District Court of the United States
for the Eastern District of South Carroll
ma, setting forth the history and charac-
ter of the Blue Ridge Railroad enterprise
and its financial relations with the State
ofSouth Carolina, and prayed the advice
and instruction of the said Court as to
their duty as assignees in the premises.
A copy of said petition is hereto ap-
pended and made part of this petition.
And your petitioners show that the
Honorable United States District Court,
Honorable George S. Bryan, United
States District Judge, presiding, upon
due consideration of said petition, order
ed, adjudged and decreed,
That your petitioners, as assignees of
said bankrupt, should present the facts
set forth in their said petition TO your
bodies to be just and equitable to the es
tate of the bankrupt, the Blue Ridge
Railroad Company in South Carolina.
A copy of said order is hereto appended.
Your petitioners, as assignees of said
Railroad Company, bankrupt, in pursu.
ance of and in obedience to said order Of
the Honorable District Court, do hereby
present this their petition to your houor-
able bodies, and pray such action on the
part of your honorable bodies towards
the estate of said bankrupt as to your
honorable bodies shall seem equitable and
just.
JAMES P. Low,
GEORGE w. WILLIAMS,
J. P. SOUTHERN,
Assignees of Blue Ridge Railroad Com
pany in South Carolina, bankrupt.