Source: https://m.openjurist.org/194/us/296
Timestamp: 2020-07-04 16:36:45
Document Index: 742218919

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 24', '§24', '§ 24', '§ 24', '§ 2', '§ 6']

194 US 296 Loren Hewit v. Berlin Machine Works | OpenJurist
194 U.S. 296 - Loren Hewit v. Berlin Machine Works
194 US 296 Loren Hewit v. Berlin Machine Works
24 S.Ct. 690
48 L.Ed. 986
LOREN M. HEWIT, as Trustee in Bankruptcy of Clara E. Kellogg, Appt.,
BERLIN MACHINE WORKS.
Loren M. Hewit, as trustee in bankruptcy of Clara E. Kellogg, applied to the United States district court for the eastern district of New York for an order of sale of certain real estate, buildings, and machinery. Notice to creditors was given, and thereafter the Berlin Machine Works, a corporation, filed its petition, praying, on grounds set forth, to be declared the owner of certain machines included in the property, and be awarded possession thereof, and that they be exempted from sale, or that it be determined that the corporation is entitled to be first paid out of the proceeds of the sale of the machines, and to share in dividends on any unpaid balance. The matter was heard before the referee, who held that the corporation had lost the legal title to the machines, and must come in as an unsecured creditor. The corporation petitioned the district court for a review of the referee's decision, the referee made his certificate and return, and the matter was submitted to the court, which thereafter reversed the decision of the referee, and adjudged that the Berlin Machine Works had a good and valid title to the machines, and that the same be delivered to it, or, in the event that they had been disposed of, that the trustee pay over to the Berlin Machine Works the sum of $1,200, the value of the machines. 112 Fed. 52.
Mr. Frank H. Robinson for appellant.
Mr. Charles M. Harrington and John L. Romer for appellee.
If the trustee had carried the case to the circuit court of appeals on petition for supervision and revision under § 24b of the bankruptcy law [30 Stat. at L. 553, chap. 541, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 3432], the case would have fallen within Holden v. Stratton, 191 U. S. 115, ante, p. 45, 24 Sup. Ct. Rep. 45, and the appeal to this court would have failed. But he took it there by appeal, though accompanied by some apparent effort to avail himself also of the other method. And as the Berlin Machine Works asserted title to the property in the possession of the trustee by an intervention raising a distinct and separable issue, the controversy may be treated as one of those 'controversies arising in bankruptcy proceedings' over which the circuit court of appeals could, under §24a, exercise appellate appeals could, under § 24a, exercise appellate 25a relates to appeals from judgments in certain enumerated steps in bankruptcy proceedings, in respect of which special provision therefor was required. (Holden v. Stratton, 191 U. S. 115, ante, p. 45, 24 Sup. Ct. Rep. 45), while § 24a relates to controversies arising in bankruptcy proceedings in the exercise by the bankruptcy courts of the jurisdiction vested in them at law and in equity by § 2, to settle the estates of bankrupts, and to determine controversies in relation thereto. Hutchinson v. Otis, 190 U. S. 552, 47 L. ed. 1179, 23 Sup. Ct. Rep. 778; Burleigh v. Foreman, 125 Fed. 217.
The appeal to this court then followed, under § 6 of the act of March 3, 1891 [26 Stat. at L. 828, chap. 517, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, pp. 549, 550].
'Conditions and reservations in contracts for sale of goods and chattels.—Except as otherwise provided in this article, all conditions and reservations in a contract for the conditional sale of goods and chattels, accompanied by immediate delivery and continued possession of the thing contracted to be sold, to the effect that the ownership of such goods and chattels is to remain in the conditional vendor or in a person other than the conditional vendee, until they are paid for, or until the occurrence of a future event or contingency, shall be void as against subsequent purchasers, pledgees, or mortgagees in good faith, and as to them the sale shall be deemed absolute, unless such contract of sale, containing such conditions and reservations, or a true copy thereof, be filed as directed in this article.'
We concur in this view, which is sustained by decisions under previous bankruptcy laws (Winsor v. McLellan, 2 Story, 492, Fed. Cas. No. 17,887; Donaldson v. Farwell, 93 U. S. 631, 23 L. ed. 993; Yeatman v. New Orleans Sav. Inst. 95 U. S. 764, 24 L. ed. 589), and is not shaken by a different result in cases arising in states by whose laws conditional sales are void as against creditors.