UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE

Where a surety upon a bond is sued, a conversation between his co-surety now dead and a third person is not admissible in evidence for the purpose of fixing a liability upon the defendant. The co-surety, if alive, would not himself have been a good witness.

A paper in the handwriting of the co-surety, offered to impeach the testimony of two witnesses, was not admissible.

Where a levy is made upon goods and chattels under a fi. fa., the officer may confide them to another for safekeeping until there has been a settlement of the clubjuris

Page 64 U. S. 470

judgment and payment of all costs. He may therefore, leave them in the hands of a receiver appointed by the court.

Where the receiver had the custody of goods, and the complainant was ordered to select such a portion of these goods as would pay his claim by a decree of the court below, which was affirmed by this Court and which he refused to do, and this portion was accordingly set apart, the receiver became from that time a trustee for the complainant.

The receiver was entitled to hold this property as trustee until a demand was made upon him in proper form by the complainant to surrender it. This proper form should have been under a certified copy of that part of the decree which permitted the complainant to demand the property and which required the receiver to surrender it with the complainant's acknowledgment of its receipt. These papers should then be filed in court for the protection of the trustee.

The case is stated in the opinion of the Court.