STOCE: EXCHANGE SEAT AS PROPERTY. Owing to the peculiar personal nature of a member's rights and privileges, the exact legal status of a seat as a property right is not settled in all jurisdictions. By the general weight of author ity, however, a seat may he considered as a species of incorporeal property held subject to such rules and regulations as may be adopted by the exchange. This gives a seat an anomalous position in the law of property because of the qualified and restricted character of an owner's rights. As it cannot be transferred except with the consent of the exchange, and to a person acceptable to the latter, it is held that it cannot be seized and sold upon an execution, but it seems settled in most jurisdictions where the question has arisen that a receiver appointed in proceedings supplementary to execution may ap ply to the court for an order requiring the judg ment debtor to arrange for a transfer of his seat to a person acceptable to the exchange, and apply the proceeds to the satisfaction of the judgment. This may also be done by a judgment creditor's bill in some jurisdictions. Thus, it will be seen that the courts do not assume to proceed against the seat itself, but attain the desired end through their power over the debtor.
The United States Supreme Court has held that the rights of a member to his seat in an ex change pass to his assignee in bankruptcy, and the latter may take such steps as may he neees safy to compel the bankrupt to procure a transfer of Iris seat subject to the rules of the exchange. By the rules of probably all exchanges the claims of members must be first satisfied upon the sale of a seat. A seat cannot be bequeathed or de vised by will, nor is it strictly descendihle. as the person to whom it might be thus given or descend might not be acceptable to the exchange; but the rules generally provide for the sale of a seat on the de:ttr, of a member, an application of the proceeds to any claims the other members may have against the deceased, and a distribu tion of the proceeds to his personal representa tives. The courts are loth to interfere with any reasonable rules and regulations of a stock ex change and with any action it may take to maintain discipline or enforce its rules, and their aid could probably only be invoked in cases of gross fraud or imposition upon a member.