Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-02-08
TO PREVENT FRAUDS
BILL INTENDED TO PROTECT THE
INTERESTS OF CREDITORS.
Measure Designed to Bar the Wrongful
Sale of Merchandise in
the District.

Representative Davis of Minnesota, q
member of the House District committee,
has completed the revision and rewriting
of House bill 5O67, to prevent the fraudulent
sale of merchandise in the District of CO.
lumbia. The District committee Thursday
authorized favorable report on the meas
ure after it should have been rewritten by
Mr.. Davis. The bill as it now stands fol-
lows closely the laws of Minnesota and
New York. 1t reads:
The Revised Bill.
"That a sale of any portion of stock Of
merchandise, otherwise than in the ordi-
nary course of trade in the regular and
usual prosecution of the sellers business.
or a sale of an entire stock of merchandise
In gross, will be presumed to be fraudulent
and void as against the bona fide creditors
of the seller unless the seller and pur-
chaser shall, at least ten days before the
sale, make a full detailed inventory showing
the quantity and, so far as possible with
the. exercise Of reasonable diligence, the
cost price to the seller of each article to be
included in the sale; and unless such pur-
chaser SHALL at least ten days before the
sale, in good faith, make full, explicit in
quiry of the seller as to the names and
places of residence or places of business OF
each and all of the creditors of the seller
and the amount owing each creditor; and
unless the purchaser shall, at least ten
days before the sale. in good faith. notify
or cause to be notified, personally or by
registered mail, each of the sellers cred
itors, of whom the purchaser has knoWl-
edge, or can, with the exercise of reason
able diligence, acquire knowledge of said
proposed sale and of the said cost price OF
the merchandise to be sold and of the
price proposed to be paid therefor by the
purchaser. The seller shall. at least ten
days before such sale, fully and truthfully
answer. in writing, under oath, each and
all of said inquiries.
Section 2. That nothing contained in
this act shall apply to sales made by ex-
ecutors, administrators, receivers or any
public officer conducting a sale in his
official capacity
Section 3. That except as expressly pro-
vided in this act. nothing therein contained
nor any act hereunder shall change or
affect the present rules of evidence or the
present Prescriptions of law"
Creditors Not Differentiated.
The report to accompany the bill is as
follows:
your committee beg to report that in
their opinion the bill as introduced sought
to limit creditors of the seller to those per-
sons who had given him credit for mer-
chandise sold to him or for money loaned
to him to be used in the conduct of his bus
mess.
your committee deem this form of leg
islation as being bad, in that it is purely
class legislation and seeks to give prefer
ence to certain creditors to the exclusion
of others, which, in the judgment Of the
committee, would be unwise.
Therefore your committee has obvlated
this pernicious form of legislation. In the
judgment of your committee the substitute
recommended. being in substance the same
as that which is in effect in most of the
states of the Union, is sufficiently drastic
for the government of the people resident
within the District of Columbia