Withoft

These are actions by a trustee in bankruptcy to recover from each defendant the sum of $3,500, alleged to have been received from the bankrupt as preferential payments. Much testimony was taken, which it is not necessary to review, in view of the fact that neither defendant, either in fact or in law, received the amount sued for, or any portion thereof. In this regard the facts are as follows:

Between February and July, 1910, the defendant Cutting, who was a director of the bankrupt corporation, advanced to it various sums, aggregating $5,500, and between April and July of the same year the defendant Andrews, also a director, advanced various sums, aggregating $5,225. On September 2d the company, being in need of $1,000 with which to pay interest upon an outstanding mortgage, Mrs. Andrews, wife of one of the defendants, agreed to lend this sum upon *422 another mortgage. It was also agreed, as part of the same transaction, that $3,500 of the amount advanced by each defendant should be included in this mortgage, for the purpose of securing to him the payment of that much of his claim against the company. This was done, and the mortgage to Mrs. Andrews was made for $8,000, instead…