Bush v. Shepherd, Adm'r.

205 P.2d 842, 186 Or. 105, 1949 Ore. LEXIS 151
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 2, 1949
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 205 P.2d 842 (Bush v. Shepherd, Adm'r.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bush v. Shepherd, Adm'r., 205 P.2d 842, 186 Or. 105, 1949 Ore. LEXIS 151 (Or. 1949).

Opinion

BAILEY, J.

Plaintiff, Vernal Bush, on or about March 18,1939, recovered in the Circuit Court for Multnomah County, a judgment of $3,750 against defendant, Max Ganguin, for injuries suffered by plaintiff in a collision between a motorcycle on which he was riding and a truck operated by defendant. At the time this judgment was entered Lots, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 22, 23, and 24, in Block 5, Townsend’s Addition in South Portland, Multnomah County, were owned by Ganguin or by him and his wife as tenants by the entirety.

On the 11th day of April, 1941, Ganguin was adjudicated a bankrupt by the District Court of the United States for the District of Oregon. The judgment of plaintiff was duly listed as a claim against the bankrupt. Two purported certified copies of ‘ ‘ Schedule B. — Statement of all Property of Bankrupt”, filed in the bankruptcy proceeding, were introduced in evi *108 dence, one being plaintiff’s exhibit 1 and the other defendant’s exhibit 2. The descriptions of the property shown in these exhibits are the same. The real property hereinbefore described is listed in both exhibits as belonging to the bankrupt and his wife. In one exhibit the “Estimated Value” of the property is given as $4,500, and in the other the “Estimated Value of Debtor’s Interest” is given as $4,500. Only one of these exhibits can be a correct copy of the original Schedule B on file in the United States District Court. Mrs. Mildred Ganong, “Deputy Clerk of the United States District Clerk’s office, Bankruptcy Room”, testified that the last mentioned exhibit, stating the “Estimated Value of Debtor’s Interest”, was the correct copy of the original Schedule B on file in the Clerk’s office. In the schedule of “Property claimed as exempt from operation of the Act of Congress relating to Bankruptcy” Ganguin listed the above described real property, claimed it to be exempt by state laws, and stated that it had a valuation of $3,000. Thereafter said real property was set aside to the bankrupt as exempt and, on June 3, 1941, Ganguin was discharged from all debts and claims which were made provable by the Bankruptcy Act against his estate, except such debts as were, by said Act, excepted from the operation of a discharge in bankruptcy.

Ganguin, under date of May 20, 1942, executed a deed conveying the above described lots to Elwine Ganguin, his wife, which deed was, on April 22, 1943, recorded in the deed records of Multnomah County, Oregon. Since said conveyance Ganguin has claimed no interest in said property, and, according to plaintiff, he has had no interest therein.

On February 26, 1946, Ganguin, purporting to act pursuant to the provisions of § 6-1002, O. C. L. A., filed *109 a motion in the action in which such judgment was entered for an order discharging and satisfying said judgment on the alleged ground that he had been discharged from the payment of such judgment by his discharge in bankruptcy. Attached to and made a part of such motion was his affidavit in which he recited many of the matters hereinbefore set forth. Affiant, among other things, stated that the lots hereinbefore described were owned, presumably at the time he was declared a bankrupt, jointly by himself and his wife as tenants by the entirety.

In opposition to such motion plaintiff filed the affidavit of his attorney in which the affiant swore that the real property hereinbefore described is now and, at all times mentioned in defendant’s affidavit, has been of the reasonable value in excess of $4,500, and that the interest of defendant G-anguin therein at all times mentioned, until he transferred such property, was of the reasonable value of $4,500, or in excess thereof. In the affidavit it is denied that such property was ever owned by Ganguin and his wife as tenants by the entirety. It is further stated therein that the affiant denies “that defendant’s interest in and to such property was set off to him as a homestead or exempt property in such Bankruptcy proceedings for the reason that * * * said defendant’s interest in such property was of a greater reasonable market value than $3,000.00 and any excess above that amount could not have been lawfully set off to him as property exempt from execution.”

The Circuit Court, on December 30,1947, entered an order authorizing and directing the clerk of that Court “to enter satisfaction and discharge the judgment” hereinbefore described. From this order plaintiff has appealed.

*110 After the appeal had been perfected, bnt prior to oral argument in this court, Max G-anguin died, and, with the permission of this Court, William K. Shepherd, administrator of his estate, has been substituted in his place as respondent. Wherever the word “defendant” is herein used, it refers to Max G-anguin and not to the administrator of his estate.

Section 6-1002, O. C. L. A., which forms the basis of the present proceeding, reads as follows:

“Any person discharged from his debts pursuant to the act of congress known as ‘An act to establish a uniform system of bankruptcy throughout the United States,’ approved July 1, 1898, and all subsequent amendments thereto, may file in any court or tribunal in which a judgment shall at any time have been rendered or a transcript thereof filed against him, either before or after such discharge, a motion in such suit, action or proceeding for the discharge of the judgment from the record, and if it shall appear to the court that he has been discharged from the payment of such judgment or the claim upon which such judgment shall have been based, the court shall order and direct that such judgment be discharged and satisfied of record, and thereupon the clerk of such court shall enter a satisfaction thereof; provided, however, that no such order shall be granted except upon such notice to the parties interested as the court or judge thereof may by order prescribe. ’ ’

When the foregoing judgment was docketed it became a lien on defendant’s interest in the above described property, regardless of whether it was owned by him or by him and his wife as tenants by the entirety. § 6-801,. O. C. L. A.; Ganoe v. Ohmart, 121 Or. 116, 254 P. 203. At the time of the entry of such judgment, defendant had not claimed that property as a homestead.

*111 The lien of tills judgment, having been acquired more than four months prior to the filing of the petition in bankruptcy, was not affected by the bankruptcy of Ganguin. Bankruptcy Act, § 67a (3 F. C. A., Title 11, § 107.) 8 C. J. S., Bankruptcy, § 244, p. 897.

By the provisions of § 2 of the Bankruptcy Act (3 F.C.A., Title 11, § 11a) courts of bankruptcy are invested “with such jurisdiction at law and in equity as will enable them to exercise original jurisdiction in proceedings under this Act, *' * * as they are now or may be hereafter held, to— * * * (11) Determine all claims of bankrupts to their exemptions”. Under this section of the Bankruptcy Act it is held that the bankruptcy court has exclusive jurisdiction to determine all claims of the bankrupt to exemptions, and, when the right to an exemption is determined, such determination cannot be questioned in a collateral proceeding. In re McCrary Bros., 169 Fed. 485; In re Bordelon, 4 F. (2d) 285; Walkup v. Covington, 173 Tenn.

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Bluebook (online)
205 P.2d 842, 186 Or. 105, 1949 Ore. LEXIS 151, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bush-v-shepherd-admr-or-1949.