Court Opinion

ID: 9828350
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 18:19:08.46511+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:42:47.414085
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
In stating this case, through oversight, we stated that B. D. Craig and a number of others sued B. D. Dashiell and H. O. Ledger-wood, trustee, etc., when as a matter of fact Craig and others sued Dashiell for an accounting as their agent, and he impleaded Ledgerwood, trustee, who came in and claimed the funds in his capacity as trustee. Further, the petition in bankruptcy was filed April 13, 1911, but the final adjudication was not made until November 13,1911; Led-gerwood qualifying as trustee on December 6, 1911. This correction is made in deference to the request of counsel for appellees, and not that it makes any material difference in so far as the case is concerned. Neither does it make any difference when Ledgerwood qualified as trustee.
“ ‘The filing of the petition (in bankruptcy) is a caveat to all the world and, in *1014effect, an attachment and injunction. * * * And, on adjudication, title to tlie bankrupt’s property became vested in the trustee, with actual or constructive possession placed in the custody of the bankruptcy court. * * * ’ The filing of the petition is an assertion of jurisdiction with a view to the determination of the status of the bankrupt and a settlement and distribution of his estate. The exclusive jurisdiction of the bankruptcy court is so far in rem that the estate is regarded as in custodia legis from the filing of the petition. It is true that, under section 70a of the act of 1898 (Act July 1, 1898, c. 541, 30 Stat. 565 LU. S. Comp. St. 1913, § 9654]), the trustee of the estate, on his appointment and qualification, is vested by operation of law with the title of the bankrupt as of the date he was adjudicated a bankrupt; but there are many provisions of the law which show its purpose to hold the property of the bankrupt intact from the time of the filing of the petition, in order that it may be administered under the law if an adjudication in bankruptcy shall follow the beginning of the proceedings. Section 70a, in reciting the property which vests in the trustee, says there shall vest ‘property, which prior to the filing of the petition (the bankrupt), * * * could by any means have transferred or which might have been levied upon and sold under judicial process against * * * (the bankrupt).' Under section 67c attachments within four months before the filing of the petition are dissolved by the adjudication in the event of the insolvency of the bankrupt, if their enforcement would work a preference. Provision is made ‘for the prompt taking possession of the bankrupt’s property, before adjudication, if necessary (section 69a). Every person is forbidden to receive any property after the filing of the petition, with intent to defeat the purposes of the act.’ Acme Harvester Co. v. Beekman Lumber Co., 222 U. S. 300, 32 Sup. Ct. 96, 56 L. Ed. 208.” Kopplin v. Ludwig, 170 S. W. 106.
The motion is overruled.