Coats

A. S. Coats is trustee in bankruptcy of the Raymond Box Company, a corporation. On December 2, 1910, the company executed and delivered to appellant, the Pacific State Bank, a note for the sum of $23,400 and a mortgage to secure its payment upon certain real and personal property of the bankrupt. The bank in due time filed its claim with the trustee, asserting preference over the general creditors as to such property by reason of its mortgage. Objections having been interposed to the validity of the mortgage on account of alleged irregularities attending its execution, acknowledgment, and recording, the cause was submitted to the District Court for its determination, and, the decision being adverse to the bank, it has appealed to. this court.

Three questions have been urged for decision. The first relates to the authority of the officers of the Raymond Box Company to execute the mortgage; the second to the right of the trustee, in his capacity as such, to insist upon the invalidity of the mortgage, if invalid; and the third to the regularity of the acknowledgment of the mortgage, and as to the personal property the regularity of its recording. The mortgage is signed as follows:…