James and Mary Eliza Gantt and their trustee, Thomas Lehre, seek an injunction against the Bank of the State of South Carolina. In 1840, James and Mary executed a marriage settlement, agreeing to put Mary's fortune in trust to be "invested to the joint use of Your Orator and Oratrix." In 1843, the trustees received $3800, part of Mary's fortune, and used $1050 to purchase five slaves mortgaged by Thomas J. Gantt to Samuel Hamlin. The Bank of South Carolina holds a second mortgage on "the same and divers other slaves," mortgaged by Thomas Gantt to secure another debt. The bank insists "on seizing and Selling" the trust slaves, but the petitioners contend that the bank does not have the legal authority to do so. They argue that Hamlin's mortgage predates the bank's lien and that bank representatives knew about and participated in the trustees' purchase of the slaves. Lehre and the Gantts ask for an injunction to prevent the bank from seizing and selling the slaves and for "such other and further relief as the nature of this case may require."
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
