Source: http://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/317/178
Timestamp: 2014-11-24 05:31:06
Document Index: 630731979

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 75', '§ 203', '§ 95', '§ 104', '§ 425', '§ 1714', '§ 70', '§ 110', '§ 75']

MANGUS et al. v. MILLER. | LII / Legal Information Institute
Supreme Court aboutsearch liibulletin subscribe previews MANGUS et al. v. MILLER.
317 U.S. 178 (63 S.Ct. 182, 87 L.Ed. 169)
MANGUS et al. v. MILLER.
Argued: Nov. 17, 1942.
[HTML] Mr. Edwin J. Skeen, of Salt Lake City, Utah, for petitioners.
The question is whether the interest of one of two joint tenants of a land purchase contract can be administered in farmer-debtor proceedings under § 75 of the Bankruptcy Act as amended, 11 U.S.C. 203, 11 U.S.C.A. § 203, although subsequent to the filing of his petition the interest of his co-tenant had been forfeited by default in payment of installments of the purchase price.
In the circumstances of this case it attributed these difficulties to the uncertainty as to the rights of the husband as joint tenant of the contract with his wife and as tenant in common with respondent of the land. The uncertainty arose, it was suggested, from the doubt whether the husband upon effecting an adjustment and compromise with creditors would be entitled to acquire all the land upon payment of the balance of the purchase price, or only to demand half of it on payment of one-half of the purchase money due. We granted certiorari, 316 U.S. 657, 62 S.Ct. 1277, 86 L.Ed. 1736, on a petition which challenged the rulings of the Circuit Court of Appeals that the wife was an indispensable party to the farmer-debtor proceeding, and that the interest of the husband alone was not susceptible of administration in that proceeding.
We see no reason to doubt that, under these provisions and others presently to be noted, the bankruptcy court had jurisdiction in a § 95 proceeding over the husband's interest as joint tenant in the contract for the purchase of the land. Section 75, sub. n, expressly subjects to the jurisdiction of the bankruptcy court the vendee's interest in such a contract. And, so far as we are advised, Utah accepts the general common law rules relating to joint tenancies, including the rules permitting alienation of the interest of a joint tenant, and making it property subject to execution and separate sale. Cf. Spalding v. Allred, 23 Utah, 354, 64 P. 1100; Neill v. Royce, Utah, 120 P.2d 327; § 104-37-9 Revised Statutes of Utah, 1933; and see 3 Tiffany, Real Property (3rd ed.) § 425; 2 Thompson, Real Property, §§ 1714-17. When so locally recognized the interest of a joint tenant is a property interest subject to the jurisdiction of the bankruptcy court under § 70 of the general Bankruptcy Act, 11 U.S.C. 110, 11 U.S.C.A. § 110; Matter of DePree, 30 A.B.R.,N.S., 629; In re Williams, 16 A.B.R.,N.S., 218; cf. In re Brown, D.C., 60 F.2d 269; In re Williams' Estate, D.C., 16 F.Supp. 909.
Section 75, sub. n, of the Farm Bankruptcy Act, 11 U.S.C. 203, sub. n, which provides that the filing of a petition shall subject 'the farmer and all his property' to the jurisdiction of the Court, further directs that 'In proceedings under this section, except as otherwise provided herein, the jurisdiction and powers of the courts, the title, powers and duties of its officers, the duties of the farmer, and the rights and liabilities of creditors, and of all persons with respect to the property of the farmer * * * shall be the same as if a voluntary petition for adjudication had been filed and a decree of adjudication had been entered. * * *' And subsection s(4) of § 75 commands that '* * * the provisions of this title shall be held to apply also to partnerships, common, entirety, joint, community ownerships * * * and any such parties may join in one petition.'