Thompson

This is a hearing upon an original application for a writ of certiorari. The uncontradicted facts disclosed by the record are the following: The assignee of the estate of Alfred Clarke, an insolvent debtor, applied to the superior court sitting in the insolvency proceeding for permission to sell certain personal property of the estate of the insolvent. The property was second-hand waterpipe laid in the ground. An order of the court was obtained permitting the assignee to sell the pipe at private sale. He made two sales, and reported them to the court, stating that “he had sold six hundred feet of said pipe to William Long for the sum of sixty-four dollars, or at the rate of four cents per foot, and on the tenth, day of June, 1896, had sold the remainder of said pipe to William F. Thompson for the sum of one hundred and twenty dollars.” The sale was confirmed upon June 18, 1896. Thereafter the assignee resigned, and George P. Thurston was appointed in his stead. Thurston ever since has been and now Is the duly qualified and acting assignee. Upon September 25, *540 1896, affidavits were presented to the court in insolvency in support of the assignee’s application to have the sale of…