American Trust & Savings Bank v. Ruppe

237 F. 581, 150 C.C.A. 463, 1916 U.S. App. LEXIS 1981
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedNovember 16, 1916
DocketNo. 172
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 237 F. 581 (American Trust & Savings Bank v. Ruppe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
American Trust & Savings Bank v. Ruppe, 237 F. 581, 150 C.C.A. 463, 1916 U.S. App. LEXIS 1981 (8th Cir. 1916).

Opinion

SANBORN, Circuit Judge.,

The American Trust 8c Savings Bank, a corporation, presents a petition to revise an order of the District Court made April 28, 1916, directing the bank to pay over to the trustee of the estates of Monte L. Powell and Minnie A. Powell, bankrupts, a specified part of the proceeds of the sale of property formerly owned by them made by the bank under a mortgage to it given by the Powells on May 6, 1914, to secure their debt of $4,600 to the bank. On October 17, 1914, the bank brought an action in replevin in one of the district courts of the state of New Mexico' based on the mortgage'and the alleged breach of its provisions by the mortgagors, the sheriff took the mortgaged, property under the writ of replevin of that court and delivered it to1 the bank which had the possession of it and was proceeding to advertise it for sale'under the terms and power in the mortgage when on October 20, 1914, the Powells filed in the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico a voluntary petition in bankruptcy and were adjudged bankrupts. On October 30, 1914, in a summary proceeding in the bankruptcy court over the objection and protest of the bank on the ground that the bankruptcy court had no jurisdiction of the mortgaged property, of it, or of its adverse claim to the property, an objection and protest which the bank maintained throughout all the proceedings, that court ordered the bank to cease prosecuting its replevin suit and to take no further steps toward the sale of the property under its mortgage. On November 18, 1914, on the petition of the trustee, the state court substituted the trustee for the Powells as defendant in the replevin action. On November 21, 1914, the bank applied to tire bankruptcy court for a dissolution of its injunction, the court vacated it, but also ordered that the sale of the property should not be made by the bank for less than, $6,000, that the sale should not affect the liens upon or [583]*583rights in the property, that the proceeds should stand in the place of the property and that the proceeds should be subject to the further order of the bankruptcy court. On December 19, 1914, the bankruptcy court in response to an application of the trustee for an order on the bank to hold $6,050, the proceeds of the sale of the property, until the determination of the action in replevin and upon the prayer of the bank in reply for the payment of its mortgage debt, interest and attorneys’ fees out of this $6,050, ordered that the prayer of the bank be denied without prejudice and that its motion remain on the files of the court until the final determination of the action in replevin." The trustee answered the complaint in the replevin action and by his answer admitted the validity of the note, mortgage and claim of the bank for $4,600 and interest, denied that there had been any breach of the terms of the mortgage at the time action in replevin was commenced, demanded a return of the property and interposed counterclaims for damages to the amount of $20,000 for the taking and detention of the property. When the action came on for trial the trustee in open court waived all claim and right to a return of the property and elected to rely upon his claim for damages. The case was then tried to a jury which rendered a verdict in favor of the trustee for the sum of $1. Judgment was entered by the state court in his favor for that dollar and the bank paid and satisfied the judgment. Subsequently in April, 1916, the trustee made an application to the bankruptcy court for an order on the bank to pay over to him all of the $6,050, except what was due on its note for $4,600 on October 20, 1914. The bank claimed and demanded, in addition to its debt and interest to October 20, 1914, interest on its debt thereafter, expenses for caring for the property previous to the sale, about $900 for rent alleged to be secured by a landlord’s lien upon these proceeds, and attorneys’ fees in the replevin action. The court ordered that the bank retain out of the $6,050, the amount of its principal debt, interest thereon until November 30, 1914, and $81.25 for expenses, and that it pay over to the trustee the remainder of the fund. This is the order the revision of which is sought by the bank upon the facts which have been recited.

[1, 2] The first question is: Did the bankruptcy court have jurisdiction, without the consent and over the objection of the bank, to adjudge in a summary manner the validity or extent of its claim to the mortgaged property in its possession when the petition in bankruptcy was filed, or the validity or extent of its claim to the proceeds of that property ?

“There are two classes of cases arising under the act of 1898 and controlled by different principles. The first class is where there is a claim of adverse title to property of the bankrupt, based upon a transfer antedating the bankruptcy. The other class is where there is no claim of adverse title based on any transfer prior to the bankruptcy, but where the property is in the physical possession of a third party or of an agent of the bankrupt, or of an officer of a bankrupt corporation, who refuses to deliver it to the trustee in bankruptcy. In the former class of cases a plenary suit must be brought, eithér at law or in equity, by the trustee, in which the adverse claim of title can be tried and adjudicated.” Babbitt v. Dutcher, 216 U. S. 102, 113, 30 Sup. Ct. 372, 377 (54 L. Ed. 402, 17 Ann. Gas. 969); In re Rathman, 183 Fed. 913, 919, 920, [584]*584923, 924, 928, 106 C. C. A. 253, 259, 260, 263, 264, 268; Stone-Ordean-Wells Co. v. Mark, 227 Fed. 975, 978, 979, 142 C. C. A. 433, 436, 437; Bardes v. Hawarden Bank, 178 U. S. 524, 20 Sup. Ct. 1000, 44 L. Ed. 1175; Mueller v. Nugent, 184 U. S. 1, 14, 15, 22 Sup. Ct. 269, 46 L. Ed. 405; Jaquith v. Rowley, 188 U. S. 620, 23 Sup. Ct. 369, 47 L. Ed. 620; Metcalf v. Barker, 187 U. S. 165, 175, 23 Sup. Ct. 67, 47 L. Ed. 122; Pickens v. Roy, 187 U. S. 177, 180, 23 Sup. Ct. 78, 47 L. Ed. 128; In re Lummus (D. C.) 214 Fed. 891, 892.

Owners óf claims of the first class are adverse claimants and have the right to an opportunity to prosecute and defend their claims in plenary suits according to the course of the common law, or the rules and principles of equity jurisprudence. One who, prior to the filing of a petition in- bankruptcy, has acquired by other means than the legal proceedings specified in sections 67c and 67f of the bankruptcy law, a lien upon the property of a party subsequently adjudged bankrupt is an adverse claimant, and is entitled to all the rights and privileges of such claimant to the same extent as one who has acquired a qlaim of title to property from such a party. In re Rathman, 183 Fed. 913, 920, 921, 106 C. C. A. 253, 260, 261; Stone-Ordean-Wells Co. v. Mark, 227 Fed. 975, 976, 142 C. C. A. 433, 434; In re Shea (D. C.) 211 Fed. 365, 369; Jaquith v. Rowley, 188 U. S. 620, 621, 625, 626, 23 Sup. Ct. 369, 47 L. Ed. 620; Harris v. First National Bank, 216 U. S. 382, 383, 385, 30 Sup. Ct. 296, 54 L. Ed. 528; In re McMahon, 147 Fed. 684, 685, 77 C. C.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
237 F. 581, 150 C.C.A. 463, 1916 U.S. App. LEXIS 1981, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/american-trust-savings-bank-v-ruppe-ca8-1916.