Daniel Clark
Judge Clark no longer hears cases. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled.
How Judge Clark decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
Clark treated notice, inadequate consideration, and participation in a fraudulent transfer as reasons to disallow a bankruptcy claim entirely.
“Every party to proceedings under the bankrupt law, must be held to the utmost good faith; and he who attempts a fraud cannot, if discovered, complain when he is made to abide the legal consequences of his acts.”
Clark required criminal pleadings to identify the alleged falsity precisely enough for both the accused and the court to understand the charged offense.
“every indictment must charge the crime with such certainty and precision that it may be understood, charging all the requisites that constitute the offence”
In setting a salvage award, Clark considered the owners' limited efforts to recover the vessel as a reason to award the rescuers somewhat more.
“I have allowed the salvors a little more in this case than perhaps I should have done had the owners made more effort or shown more anxiety to have saved their vessel than they did.”
Procedural preferences
Clark required a person seeking to oppose a bankruptcy discharge to prove a concrete pecuniary interest before participating.
“when the proper proof is made the court cannot refuse the party interested the opportunity to appear and oppose the discharge of the bankrupt.”
Clark treated literal reproduction of an allegedly forged instrument as essential to a valid forgery indictment.
“The offence described in the statute on which these indictments are founded is forgery, and it has always been held necessary in such cases to set out literally the paper alleged to be forged.”
Clark followed state practice when federal law supplied no exclusive rule for allocating the reasonable expenses of a jury view.
“it is the practice of the court to allow such part or all of the costs as may be deemed equitable.”
Cautions
On direct examination, Clark treated a yes-or-no question that embodied a material fact as leading unless an exception applied.
“A leading question is one which suggests or leads to the answer”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“it is ordered that the same be sold by the Marshall and the proceeds thereof paid into the Registry of the Court and that the same be declared condemned and forfeited according to the statute in such case made and provided”
“I think the creditors may prove their debts in this case for the notes and interest, with costs of protest, as stated by them in their proof before the register.”
“They cannot, in the opinion of the court, be proved for any sum.”
“The applicant does not show a sufficient interest to entitle him to appear and resist the debtor’s discharge, and the application is therefore denied.”
“There must be judgment on the verdict.”
“Thereupon the counsel for the respondents objected that the indictment contained two counts, each count charging a distinct and substantive felony, and that the two could not be joined in the same indictment, and moved the court to quash the indictment. This motion the court denied.”
“The counsel then moved the court to compel the attorney to elect upon which count he would proceed to trial, and this motion the court denied.”
“This objection is well taken, is fatal to these indictments, and the judgments must be arrested. Defendants discharged.”
“Judgment arrested. Defendant discharged.”
“I am inclined in this case to allow as costs to be recovered by the defendant of the plaintiff the expense paid by the defendant as carriage hire and car fare to take the jury to the place of view and back to the court—$15 at the first trial and $46.40 on the second, the distance being much greater,—and to disallow the sum of $19.50 for the board and lodging of the jury over night on the second view”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
No case-level docket record was returned for this 1866-1891 tenure. The profile therefore makes no claim about caseload mix, case duration, administrative dispositions, or motion timing.
A historical record
Judge Clark no longer hears cases. This profile stays available as a record of how they ruled. If you're preparing for a matter, start from the court's current bench.