Source: https://openjurist.org/286/us/269
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 04:19:08+00:00

Document:
Argued April 25, 26, 1932.
The attempt made in the present suit to relitigate the issues involved in the bankruptcy proceeding is justified chiefly on the ground that the referee in bankruptcy was without jurisdiction to try the issues presented in the proceeding before him, and that, for that reason, the order was void and could not operate to adjudicate the issues tendered in the present suit. This court granted certiorari, 285 U. S. 532, 52 S. Ct. 407, 76 L. Ed. —, to resolve the jurisdictional question. Many and complicated questions of fact are involved and were argued here, but, as they have been found in favor of the respondent by both courts below, we do not review them (see Texas & N. O. R. Co. v. Brotherhood of Railway & Steamship Clerks, 281 U. S. 548, 50 S. Ct. 427, 74 L. Ed. 1034), and we confine ourselves to the question of the jurisdiction of the referee in bankruptcy.
The court below held that the referee in bankruptcy had jurisdiction to decide the issues raised by the petition and answer, by virtue of the fact that the trustee had gone into possession of the lease, and that possession gave the referee as a court of bankruptcy jurisdiction to hear and determine all questions respecting the title, possession, or control of the property. Murphy v. John Hofman Co., 211 U. S. 562, 29 S. Ct. 154, 53 L. Ed. 327. It also held that the referee had power to make the order, since Lyvers had participated in the litigation without objecting to its summary form until after the order had been made. We think that the judgment should be affirmed.
The right asserted before the referee by the trustee in bankruptcy to compel a conveyance to the bankrupt of property adversely claimed is one which may be asserted by the trustee in a plenary suit. By section 23a of the Bankruptcy Act, 11 USCA § 46(a) and section 291 of the Judicial Code (28 USCA § 431 note), District Courts of the United States, which by section 1(8) of the Bankruptcy Act, 11 USCA § 1(8) are courts of bankruptcy, are given jurisdiction of all controversies in law or equity between trustees and adverse claimants concerning the property claimed by the trustee. And by section 23b, 11 USCA § 46(b), 'suits by the trustee shall only be brought or prosecuted in the courts where the bankrupt, whose estate is being administered by such trustee, might have brought or prosecuted them if proceedings in bankruptcy had not been instituted, unless by consent of the proposed defendant. * * *' For reasons stated at length in the opinion in MacDonald v. Plymouth County Trust Co., 286 U. S. 263, 52 S. Ct. 505, 76 L. Ed. —, decided this day, we hold that the referee is a court within the meaning of section 23b and that, respondent's predecessor having consented to litigate the issues presented by the petition and answer before the referee, the latter had jurisdiction to decide the issues presented. The order of the referee, in the bankruptcy proceeding, affirmed by the District Court, therefore adjudicated those issues between the parties, and they may not be relitigated in the present suit by their successors in interest.

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 § 46
 § 431
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 § 46
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