Brooks v. Smith

290 F. 33, 1923 U.S. App. LEXIS 1744
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedJune 4, 1923
DocketNo. 1610
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 290 F. 33 (Brooks v. Smith) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the First Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brooks v. Smith, 290 F. 33, 1923 U.S. App. LEXIS 1744 (1st Cir. 1923).

Opinion

ANDERSON, Circuit Judge.

On March 3, 1921, the Beaverboard Company, a Delaware corporation, filed in the District Court for the Southern District of New York a bill in equity against James Imbrie, [35]*35William Morris Imbrie, Roswell C. Tripp, Charles G. West, Jr., David T. Wells, of New York or New Jersey, and Waldo S. Kendall and William Minot, of Massachusetts, described as copartners doing business as bankers and dealers in securities under the firm name of Imbrie & Co., alleging that the plaintiff was a creditor to an amount in excess of $5,000, and praying the appointment of a receiver, and an injunction against suits by other creditors, on the ground that the defendants were embarrassed by lack of cash and liquid capital. Frederico Lage is also referred to as having been a partner at the time when¡ the plaintiff’s debt is alleged to have been incurred, and rights are sought to be reserved against said Lage. Federal jurisdiction was grounded on diversity of citizenship. The bill alleges that Imbrie & Co., with their principal office in New York City, had assets exceeding $13,500,000, and liabilities of about $11,810,000, so that, if liquidated in ordinary course, the concern would be solvent, with net assets of about $1,740,000. By counsel the defendants on the same day appeared and admitted the allegations of the bill to be true, and assented to the appointment of receivers. The court forthwith, without notice to creditors, appointed Theodore G. Smith and John B. Johnston, with very broad powers of administration, including the power to apply to the courts of other jurisdictions for the appointment of ancillary receivers.

On March 7, 1921, the said receivers applied to the District Court for Massachusetts, reciting the proceedings in New York, alleging that Imbrie & Co. had a branch office in Boston, with assets “worth in excess of secured and unsecured debts in the neighborhood of about $5,000.” This allegation seems to treat the Boston business as a separate concern. Here, as in New York, the defendants appeared by counsel, admitted the allegations, and joined in the prayer for relief. The District Court thereupon appointed the New York receivers, together with Frederick S. Goodwin, of Dover, Mass., to be ancillary receivers in the Massachusetts district, enjoining all suits pending or contemplated by creditors.

On April 25, 1921, the appellant Edwin G. Brooks filed, in behalf of himself and all other persons in like situation, a petition alleging that he had a claim upwards of $20,000 as assignee, against James Imbrie, William Morris Imbrie, Frederico Lage, Roswell C. Tripp, Charles G. West, Jr., Waldo S. Kendall, and William Minot, copartners doing business under the name of Imbrie & Co., on account of transactions at the Boston office of said firm.

The partnership thus described includes Frederico Lage and leaves out David T. Wells, described as a partner in the bills filed in the District Courts in both New York and Massachusetts. In this petition, Brooks alleges that ancillary receivers had been appointed, “for said above-named partnership;” but he also alleges that, under various agreements referred to, a partnership was constituted under the name of Imbrie & Co., doing business in New York, Chicago, and elsewhere than New England and Eastern Canada, consisting of James Imbrie, William Morris Imbrie, Frederico Lage, Roswell C. Tripp, Charles G. West, Jr., John F. Trow, C. A. Dana, and David T. Wells; that under another agreement dated January 1, 1919, another partnership was [36]*36constituted, consisting of James Imbrie, William Morris Imbrie, Brederico Rage, Roswell C. Tripp, Charles G. West, Jr., Waldo S. Kendall, and William Minot (referred to in the proceedings and herein as the Boston partnership), organized to carry on business in the New England States and in Canada east of Ontario; that separate books of account were kept of the Boston partnership and of the New York partnership ; and that the two concerns were in all respects carried on as separate and distinct partnerships, with the alleged legal result that the assets of the Boston partnership ought to be used for the purpose of satisfying the creditors of the Boston partnership and ought not to be removed from this jurisdiction, as, on information and belief, the petitioner alleged the ancillary receivers intended to do. The prayers were:

(1) That the ancillary receivers be directed to retain within the jurisdiction of the District Court in the Massachusetts District all the assets in their possession until further order of the court; and

(2) That said receivers retain for distribution among the persons dealing with the 7 persons named in the agreement of January 1, 1919, all assets attributable to the.Boston business or pay over such assets to distinct and independent receivers for distribution to those found entitled thereto.

About 20 other alleged creditors subsequently joined in the petition. The District Court allowed these petitioners to intervene. It is apparently assumed throughout the record that they are creditors of Imbrie & Co.; but there is nowhere in the record any finding on that point.

To this intervening petition the ancillary receivers filed on June 30, 1921, a long answer. They denied information sufficient to form a belief - as to the allegation that the interveners were creditors. They alleged that in the proceedings in New York the claimants were required to assert their claims on or before May 8, 1921, and that a special master had been appointed to consider all claims; that the court in New York had assumed full, complete, and exclusive jurisdiction of the property of defendants, which property the ancillary receivers declared to be within the exclusive jurisdiction of the New York court, “with exclusive right and power to determine all questions and claims affecting said property and all interests therein, with full and exclusive right to marshal said claims and said interests, and to fully liquidate, sell, and determine the character and extent of the title, custody, and possession of such receivers and of all persons whatsoever in such property,” etc.; that the court, in Massachusetts “in appointing ancillary receivers herein recognized the right of primary jurisdiction in; said District Court for the Southern District of New York, and appointed its ancillary receivers to act in subordination of said main order of administration of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.”

On the interveners’ motion, the “issues in said intervening petition” were referred to a special master, “to hear the parties and their evidence and report to the court his findings of fact and his conclusions of law and fact thereon.” In his report, the master dealt only with [37]*37the problem as to whether the business carried on in Boston under the name of Imbrie & Co. was a branch of a single partnership of Imbrie & Co., which had its principal office in New York City and admittedly had various branch offices in Chicago, Milwaukee, and other cities, or whether the Boston concern was a separate and distinct partnership. The master made no finding as to whether Imbrie Si Co., however constituted, is solvent or insolvent, or what its assets and liabilities are. Nor is there any finding as to the assets and liabilities of the Boston concern, whether considered as a branch or as a separate copartnership.

The report deals largely with agreements other than the agreement of January 1, 1919.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
290 F. 33, 1923 U.S. App. LEXIS 1744, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brooks-v-smith-ca1-1923.