Multiple Currency and Index Clauses
March, r936 University of Pennsylvania Law Review And American Law Register FOUNDED 1852 Copyright 1936, by the University of Pennsylvania VOLUME 84 MARCH, 1936 No. 5 MULTIPLE CURRENCY AND INDEX CLAUSES ARTUR NUSSBAUMf THE PROBLEM After the Joint Resolution of June 5, 1933, abrogating the gold clause,' had definitely been held constitutional, 2 questions concerned with its con- struction came into the foreground. Among them the problem of the so- called multiple currency clauses is of particular importance. Such provisions, which are to be found in many American bonds and coupons, give the creditor an option to receive payment at a fixed ratio, in one of several currencies. The following coupon, detached from a 1912 bond, may be quoted as an example: "Bethlehem Steel Company will pay to bearer at its office or agency in the City of New York, U. S. A., Twenty-five Dollars United States Gold Coin, or in London, England, Five Pounds, Two Shillings, Ten Pence, or in Amsterdam, Holland, Sixty-two Guilders, Twenty- five Cents, being six months' interest then due on its First Lien and Refunding Mortgage Five Per Cent. Thirty-Year Gold Bonds, Series A, No.-." The question has arisen whether under the Joint Resolution an Ameri- can holder of such a coupon, upon tendering it in Amsterdam, is entitled to the guilder amount specified therein. A claim for the dollar equivalent of the guilder amount was dismissed in City Bank Farmers Trust Co. v. Bethlehem Steel Co., Justice Merrell dissenting.3 No appeal was taken. The contrary has been held, in a declaratory judgment, by a California t Visiting Professor of Law, Columbia Law School; formerly Professor of Law, Uni- versity of Berlin; lecturer at the Academie du Droit International de la Hague, i933; author of numerous treatises, monographs, and articles in legal periodicals.
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