1788.
as a bond must be given by the petitioning creditor. 3 State Laws. 644. sect. 3.
3. But the commission itself has issued erroneously and illegally; for the Defendants were not partners at the time it issued; and a joint commission can only issued against partners. The assignment of the 25th of June, 1785, divested all their partnership stock, and, consequently, dissolved their joint connection; for, partnerships may be dissolved by tokens, &c. or, they necessarily cease with the objects of their institution. 1.Domat. lib. 1. tit. 8. par. 10 11. sect. 5.pa. 155. But, although there was no formal dissolution of the partnership, it is clear that the second trading was merely colourable, for the purposes of a bankruptcy; and they are described to be traders by retail, which cannot relate to their former general partnership, but to the recent colourable trading. To carry on business after a man's effects are gone, is, in itself, a fraud. Co. B. L. 80. 81. 82. 1 Burr 478. 2 Black. Rep. 996. 362.
4. In a joint commission all the parties must have committed acts of bankruptcy. Co. B. L. 4. 1 Atk. 97. The certificate, therefore, can be of no avail, at least, as to Goodwin and Smith, who never committed acts of bankruptcy. In crossing the river, although they said it was to avoid an arrest, they were only returning to their home; and absconding, in order to constitute an act of bankruptcy, must be from the usual place of abode, where the party does business; which, in the present case, was in New Jersey, whither they retreated, and not in Pennsylvania, where the writ issued. In Co. B. L. 71. it is said, that, if a man flies from the State to which he belongs, this is an act of bankruptcy: but here the parties did not fly from, but on, their State, or home; and a denial, or keeping house, to bring a man within the act, must be at his own place of residence, nor at the residence of another person. Ibid. 74. Nor can an act be made an act of bankruptcy by analogy; it must be such as is within the law; and there is no case where a stranger. in another State has been deemed a bankrupt for returning to his home in order to avoid an arrest where, probably, he could not obtain bail; for a temporary concealment in another's house for the fame reason.
The Counsel for the Defendant stated, that, if the present objections were such stated, they would be equally fatal to almost every other certification which had been granted under the act of Assembly; for, nine out of ten of the commissions of bankrupts had originated in the same manner, upon debts either revived by new securities, or created in concert for the occasion. They then contended—1. That the original simple contract debt was merged in the bond, 6 Co. 44. that if both parties agree to bring the debt in this shape within the act, the proviso in the third sect. is satisfied; and that the bond was not taken after the bankruptcy, which distinguishes this from the case in Rep. Temp. Hard. 267.
2. That, of the second point, the act of one partner, is the act of all in commercial matters; that one partner may bring a suit atlaw
