Case ID: ad_112/html/0384-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Gaynor, J.:", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Nathan Schellenberg and Moses Schellenberg, Respondents, v. Michael Mullaney, Appellant.
    Second Department,
    April 20, 1906.
    Bankruptcy—debt for clothing purchased for child discharged by bankruptcy.
    A debt for goods purchased by a husband or parent for his wife or children is discharged by bankruptcy.- Section 17 of the national Bankruptcy Act, ..excepting from discharge “liabilities * * * for maintenance-or-support ' of wife or child,” refers only to the involuntary liabilities under the common law.for support of -wife and children to any one who relieves their wants, and to the. liability under bonds, etc-., given for such support by requirement of , court. '
    Appeal by the defendant, Michael Mullaney.} from adjudgment of the Municipal Court of the city of Hew York in favor of the plaintiffs, rendered after a trial before the court without a jury.
    The complaint is for goods-sold and delivered to the defendant and allegés that the goods- were clothing, which were used by the" defendant’s children, and that they were necessaries for the said children, and this was all admitted at the trial.
    
      William J. Courtney, for the appellant.
    
      Edward Lazansky, for the respondents.
   Gaynor, J.:

The defendant’s subsequent discharge in bankruptcy was held by the justice not to discharge him .from this debt. This was error. Seefion 17 of the Rational Bankruptcy Act as amended in 1903 excepts among others “ liabilities * * * for alimony due or to become due, or for maintenance or support of wife or child,” from discharge. (30 U. S. Stat. at Large, 550, as amd. by 32 id. 798, § 5.) This last clause refers only to the involuntary liability under the common law for support of wife and children, and to any one who relieves their want; and under bonds, or the like, given for such support by requirement of courts and magistrates. It does not refer to liabilities for goods purchased by a husband or parent, as in this case, and used by wife or child. This latter fact does not change the character of the debt. The purchaser was free to do what he liked with the goods. They were a matter of free bargain and sale (Collier Bankruptcy [4th ed.], 199).

The judgment should be reversed.

Hirschberg, P. J., Hooker, Rich and Miller, JJ., concurred.

Judgment of the Municipal Court reversed and new trial ordered, costs to abide the event.