In Re Blake and Others, Ex Parte

Citations

• 175 U.S. 114
• 20 S. Ct. 42
• 44 L. Ed. 94
• 1899 U.S. LEXIS 306

Syllabus

<p>Blake v. McClung, 172 U. S. 239, (which case was brought here by writ of error to the Supreme Court of the State of Tennessee,) having been remanded to that court, and the mandate having gone down, the counsel of Blake and others moved for the entry of a decree placing them in the same class and on exact equality with the Tennessee creditors in respect to the distribution of the assets of the insolvent company among its creditors; but this the state Supreme Court declined to do, and entered a decree that Blake and others were entitled to participate in the assets on. the basis of a broad distribution of the assets of the corporation among all of its creditors without preference or priority, as though the act of 1877 had not been, passed; that there should be a computation of the aggregate indebtedness due from the corporation to its creditors of every class wherever residing, whereupon Blake and others should be paid the percentage and proportion found to be due to them on that basis; and that the residue of the estate of the insolvent company should be applied, first to the payment of the indebtedness due to the creditors of the corporation residing in Tennessee as provided in section five of the act of 1877, and then pro rata to the payment of the debts of the alien and non-resident creditors of said corporation other than Blake and others. To this decree Blake and others duly excepted, but, insisting that that court had not complied with the mandate of this court, applied for leave to file a petition for mandamus to compel such compliance. Held that, without inquiring whether the conclusions of the Supreme Court of Tennessee were or were not in harmony with the views expressed by this court, the remedy of petitioners for the alleged error in the decree of that court, if any, is by writ of error and not by mandamus, the remedy on error being not only entirely adequate, and open to be sought unrestrained by the amount involved, but, in respect of dealing with st