preference

Defined in 6 dictionaries — Case Law, Cyclopedic (1922), Ballentine's (1916), Black's (1910), Kinney (1893), Bouvier (1839)

Definitions from Case Law

From 213 U.S. 223 - Josiah Coder v. William Arts · 1909Most cited · 669 citing opinions

A preference, if it have the effect prescribed in § 60, enabling one creditor to obtain a greater portion of the estate than others of the same class, is not necessarily fraudulent. ... In a preferential transfer the fraud is constructive or technical, consisting in the infraction of that rule of equal distribution among all creditors which it is the policy of the law to enforce when all cannot be fully paid.

Show all 5 Supreme Court definitions and how they changed over time 1909–1943

The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary

Walter A. Shumaker and George Foster Longsdorf; ed. James C. Cahill · 1922

Priority of payment, or right thereto. Preferences may be either involuntary, being the right which a creditor obtains by law to be first paid out of the assets of the debtor, as by obtaining a judgment which is a lien on his lands, or voluntary, being the paying or securing to one or more of his creditors by a debtor (usually insolvent) the whole or a part of their claims, to the exclusion of the rest.

Ballentine's Law Dictionary

James A. Ballentine · 1916

Favorable consideration over others. See 186 Pa. 443, 65 Am. St. Rep. 865, 40 Atl. 1000. An insolvent’s paying or securing one or more of his creditors to the exclusion of the rest. See 80 Me. 580, 16 Atl. 248.

Black's Law Dictionary

Henry Campbell Black, M.A. · 1910

The act of an insolvent debtor who, in distributing his property or in assigning it for the benefit of his creditors, pays or secures to one or more creditors the full amount of their claims or a larger amount than they would be entitled to receive on a pro rata distribution. Also the right held by a creditor, in virtue of some lien or security, to be preferred above others (i. e., paid first) out of the debtor's assets constituting the fund for creditors. See Pirie v. Chicago Title & Trust Co.., 182 U. S. 438, 21 Sup. Ct 906, 45 In Ed 1171; Ashby v. Steere, 2 Fed. Cas. 15; Chad-bourne v. Harding, 80 Me. 580, 16 Atl. 248; Chism v. Citizens' Bank, 77 Miss. 599, 27 South. 637; In re Ratliff (D. C.) 107 Fed. 80; In re Stevens, 38 Minn. 432, 38 N. W. 111.

A Law Dictionary and Glossary

George C. Kinney · 1893

Payment made or or may give a particular others.

A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States

John Bouvier · 1839

Vide Insolvent; Priority.