Opinion of the Court. collusively made, with the intent of escaping liability, and defeating the rights given by statute to creditors." But the case to which our attention has been particularly called is Anderson v. Philadelphia Warehouse Company, 111 U. S. 479, 483-485, in which the question was as to the liability of the Philadelphia Warehouse Company as a shareholder of a national bank that had become insolvent. The facts in that case were these: Blumer & Co. (the senior member of that firm being president of the bank) arranged with the Warehouse Company for a loan or banker's credit, to be secured by collaterals. Kern, a member of the firm, transferred 450 shares of the stock of the bank, standing in his name on the books of the bank, and caused a new certificate to be issued in the name of Henry, as president of the Warehouse Company, and it was taken or sent to that company as further security for the credit extended to Blumer & Co. The fact of this transfer of stock to the name of Henry, as president, having come to the knowledge of the directors and executive committee of the Warehouse Company, they caused a transfer to be made on the books of the bank to one McCloskey, an irresponsible person and a porter in its employment, and a new certificate to be issued in his name, because they deemed it inadvisable to have the stock stand in the name of the company's president, and thus incur the liability imposed upon shareholders of national banks. McCloskey never had possession of the certificate, and gave to the Warehouse Company an irrevocable power of attorney for the sale and transfer of stock. Upon McCloskey's death the stock was transferred on the books of the bank to Ferris, also an irresponsible person and an employé of the Warehouse Company. A new certificate was issued to him, and delivered to the company, Ferris endorsing thereon an irrevocable power of attorney for its transfer. When the bank failed, the stock stood in the name of Ferris, the Warehouse Company holding the certificate. That company never received any dividends on the stock, and never acted as a shareholder, but held the stock as security for the debt due it. This court in that case recognized it to be well settled that Opinion of the Court. one who allows himself to appear on the books of a national bank as an "owner" of its stock is liable to creditors as a shareholder, whether he be, in fact, the absolute owner or only a pledgee, and that, if a registered owner, acting in bad faith, transfers his stock in a failing bank to an irresponsible person, for the purpose of escaping liability, or if his transfer is colorable only, the transaction is void as to creditors-citing National Bank v. Case, 99 U. S. 628; Bowden v. Johnson, 107 U. S. 251. It was further said to be beyond question that the beneficial owner of stock registered in the name of an irresponsible person may, under some circumstances, be liable to creditors as the real shareholder; "but," the court observed, "it has never, to our knowledge, been held that a mere pledgee of stock is chargeable where he is not registered as owner." It appeared, according to the opinion in that case, that there was no evidence of actual fraud or bad faith; that the Warehouse Company never was the owner of the stock in question, and never held itself out as such; that the transfer of Kern and Blumer & Co. was only by way of pledge, and the company was bound to return the stock whenever the debt, for which it was held, was paid; that the company never consented to a transfer of the stock to its name on the books, or to that of its president, and that for seven years before the failure of the bank, and at least five years before its embarrassments were known to the company or the public, the stock, with the assent of Kern, Blumer & Co. and the officers of the bank, stood in the name of McCloskey or Ferris; that during all that time neither the registered holders nor the Warehouse Company claimed dividends or in any way acted as shareholders; that either Kern or Blumer & Co. took the dividends as they were paid, and to all intents and purposes controlled the stock; that there was no concealment on the part of the Warehouse Company, and no effort to deceive; that it had possession of the certificates representing the stock, with full power to control them for all the purposes of its security, but never was or pretended to be anything else than a mere pledgee; that those who examined the list of shareholders Opinion of the Court. would have found the name of McCloskey or of Ferris as the registered holder of four hundred and fifty shares; there was nothing on the books of the bank to connect them, or either of them, with the Warehouse Company, and, therefore, no credit could have been given on account of the apparent liability of the company as a shareholder. "If," the court said, "inquiries had been made and all the facts ascertained, it would have been found that either Kern or Blumer & Co. were always the real owners of the stock, and that it had been placed in the name of the persons who appeared on the registry, not to shield any owner from liability, but to protect the title of the company as pledgee. Blumer & Co. and the bank were fully, advised who McCloskey was, and of his probable responsibility, when they allowed the transfer to be made to him, and they undoubtedly knew who Ferris was when the stock was put in his name after McCloskey's death. The avowed purpose of both transfers was to give the company the control of the stock for the purposes of its security, without making it liable as a registered shareholder. To our minds there was neither fraud nor illegality in this. The company perfected its security as pledgee, without making itself liable as an apparent owner. Kern or Blumer & Co. still remained the owners of the stock, though registered in the name of others, and pledged as collateral security for their debt. They consented to the transfer, not to escape liability as shareholders, but to save the company from a liability it was unwilling to assume, and at the same time to perfect the security it required for the credit to be given. As between Blumer & Co. and the Warehouse Company, Blumer & Co. or Kern were the owners of the stock and the company the pledgee. As between the company and the bank, or its creditors, the company 'was a pledgee of the stock and liable only as such. The creditors were put in no worse position by the transfers that were made than they would have been if the stock had remained in the name of Kern or Blumer & Co., who were always the real owners. To our minds the fact that the stock stood registered in the name of Henry, President, from December 27th to January Opinion of the Court. 10th, is, under the circumstances of this case, of no importance. The Warehouse Company promptly declined to allow itself to stand as a registered shareholder, because it was unwilling to incur the liability such a registry would impose. It asked that the transfer might be made to McCloskey. To this the owners of the stock and the bank assented, and from that time the case stood precisely as it would if the transfer had originally been made to McCloskey instead of Henry, President, or if Henry had retransferred to Kern or Blumer & Co., and they had at the request of the company made another transfer to McCloskey. The security of the Warehouse Company was perfected without imposing on the company a shareholder's liability. All this was done in good faith, when the bank was in good credit and paying large dividends, and years before its failure or even its embarrassment. So far as the company was concerned, the transfer was not made to escape an impending calamity, but to avoid incurring a liability it was unwilling to assume, and which it was at perfect liberty to shun." Another of the cases referred to, although it did not relate to the liability of the shareholders of national banking associations, is Easton v. German-American Bank, 127 U. S. 532, 536-537, in which it was said: "Where personal property is pledged, the pledgee acquires the legal title and the possession. In some cases, it is true, it may remain in the apparent possession of the pledgor, but, if so, it can be only where the pledgor holds as agent of the pledgee. By virtue of the pledge, the pledgee has the right by law, on default of the pledgor, to sell the property pledged in satisfaction of the pledgor's obligation. As in that transaction the pledgee is the vendor, he cannot also be the vendee. In reference to the pledge and to the pledgor, he occupies a fiduciary relation, by virtue of which it becomes his duty to exercise his right of sale for the benefit of the pledgor. He is in the position of a trustee to sell, and is by a familiar maxim of equity forbidden to purchase for his own use at his own sale. The same principle applies with a like result where real estate is conveyed by a debtor directly to a creditor as security for the payment of Opinion of the Court. an obligation, with a power to sell in case of default. There the creditor is also a trustee to sell, and cannot purchase the property at his own sale for his own use." It is apparent that the precise question before us was not involved in any of the above cases, although the principles announced in them bear upon the issue here presented. From those cases the following rules relating to the liability of shareholders of national banking associations may be deduced: That the real owner of the shares of the capital stock of a national banking association may, in every case, be treated as a shareholder within the meaning of section 5151; That if the owner transfers his shares to another person as collateral security for a debt due to the latter from such owner, and if, by the direction or with the knowledge of the pledgee, the shares are placed on the books of the association in such way as to imply that the pledgee is the real owner, then the pledgee may be treated as a shareholder within the meaning of section 5151 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, and therefore liable upon the basis prescribed by that section for the contracts, debts and engagements of the association; That if the real owner of the shares transfers them to another person, or causes them to be placed on the books of the association in the name of another person, with the intent simply to evade the responsibility imposed by section 5151 on shareholders of national banking associations, such owner may be treated, for the purposes of that section, as a shareholder, and liable as therein prescribed; That if one receives shares of the stock of a national banking association as collateral security to him for a debt due from the owner, with power of attorney authorizing him to transfer the same on the books of the association, and being unwilling to incur the responsibilities of a shareholder as prescribed by the statute, causes the shares to be transferred on such books to another, under an agreement that they are to be held as security for the debt due from the real owner to his creditor the latter acting in good faith and for the pur |