Court Opinion

ID: 9639268
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 16:10:06.077685+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:34:38.398238
License: Public Domain

FRANK, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
The statute provides that a discharge is to be denied for failure to keep or preserve books of accounts or records “unless the court deems such * * * failure to have been justified under all the circumstances of the case.” (Emphasis added.) Those words seem to me to establish not a “reasonable man” test but an individualized one, i. e., whether the particular bankrupt’s conduct was justified, considering his particular *810background and education. Cf. Hedges v. Bushnell, 10 Cir., 106 F.2d 979, 982; In re Neiderheiser, 8 Cir., 45 F.2d 489, 490, 73 A.L.R. 1152. The facts as found by the Referee show the bankrupt to be an ignorant person unaware of the way in which most businessmen conduct their business operations. Thus the bankrupt, as a matter of fact, satisfied the statutory test, and the Referee committed no error of “law.” The findings of fact were not “clearly erroneous,” and-therefore bound the judge. Consequently, I think he could not properly reverse the Referee.