First Nat. Bank of Paris v. Yerkes

238 F. 278, 151 C.C.A. 294, 1916 U.S. App. LEXIS 1339
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedDecember 5, 1916
DocketNo. 2845
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 238 F. 278 (First Nat. Bank of Paris v. Yerkes) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
First Nat. Bank of Paris v. Yerkes, 238 F. 278, 151 C.C.A. 294, 1916 U.S. App. LEXIS 1339 (6th Cir. 1916).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

R. B. Hutchcraft carried on business as a private warehouseman in Paris, Ky., for some 20 years, and at the times of the transactions here in issue conducted at least four warehouses located in that place. October 30, 1914, Hutchcraft executed and delivered a deed of assignment of all his property to James McClure, reciting that he was “indebted in sundry sums to divers persons, which he is unable to pay in full and is desirous of providing for the payment thereof by an assignment of his property and effects for that [279]*279purpose not exempt to him by law.” November 2d certain creditors of Hutchcraft commenced a bankruptcy proceeding against him in the court below, and on February 2, 1915, Hutchcraft was adjudged a bankrupt; and W. I* Yerkes was selected as trustee of the bankrupt’s estate. February 5th an order of reference was made by the court below to the referee in bankruptcy to receive claims against the bankrupt’s estate, “to allow or disallow claims, and to pass upon secured- and unsecured claims and to adjudicate priorities.”

The present controversy arose upon exceptions taken by the trustee and certain creditors to claims filed with the referee by the First National Bank of Paris, Ky., and to liens asserted to secure them. These claims were in form three promissory notes executed by the bankrupt at Paris, Ky., payable at the bank and to its order, and each purported to be secured by a warehouse receipt, executed by the bankrupt, for a named quantity of blue grass seed. The’ first note, bearing date July 21, 1914, was for $4,000, payable in four months after date, and the warehouse receipt purporting to secure it, No.' 127, in terms acknowledged receipt in four different warehouses, “for account of and subject to the order of First National Bank, * * * seven thousand bushels blue grass seed, deliverable only on return and cancellation of this receipt, and payment of .all charges and advances due and payable thereon. * * * This receipt is given in pursuance to the Kentucky warehouse law, ■ and is to^ be governed thereby, as well as by the laws of the United States.” The second note, bearing date August 25, 1914, was for $5,000, payable in four months after date, and the warehouse receipt purporting to secure it, No. 126, in terms acknowledged receipt in three of the warehouses named in No. 127, for account of the same bank, “eight thousand bushels stripped and cleaned blue grass seed,” and was otherwise in form the same as No. 127. However, it is agreed by the parties that the security in terms given through this warehouse receipt, No. 126, was waived in order to vote the claim at the meetings of the bankrupt’s creditors; and, although proof of the claim with this security was filed, as stated, with the referee “as of date May 25, 1915,” the court below treated the waiver as effective; indeed, counsel for the bank treats the waiver in the same way. The third note, also bearing date August 25, 1914, was likewise for $5,000, payable- four months after date, and accompanied by a warehouse receipt, numbered 130, which in terms acknowledged receipt in the same warehouses as those named in No. 126, for account of the same bank, “eight thousand bushels stripped and cleaned blue grass seed,” and in other respects was the same in form as the other warehouse receipts.

June 29, 1915, the referee entered an order disallowing all these notes “as secured claims,” and also further disallowing them “as unsecured claims until and unless” the bank “shall first surrender to the trustee” $4,440, which the bank had received from sales of part of the blue grass seed in question, and upon the supposition that the bank held a lien on such grass seed; and the order also requires McClure, as assignee, to pay to the trustee in bankruptcy certain sums, which include $2,031.80 derived from sales made of blue grass seed after [280]*280the assignment and held by the assignee for the bank under a like supposition" of lien. Upon petition for review the court below affirmed the order of the referee. The First National Bank, in its own behalf, and James McClure, as assignee of Hutchcraft, have appealed from, and have also filed a petition to revise, the order of the court below.

[1] The trustee and the objecting creditors, appellees, have interposed a motion to dismiss the appeal on the ground that it was not taken within 10 days after the judgment of the court was rendered. The date September IS, 1915, appears at the end of the order, or judgment, of the District Court, in connection with the signature of the judge; but the filing date and the signature of the court clerk are shown at the commencement of the judgment under the date September 16th. The apparent reason for so disclosing the dates is that the judgment order was brought into the record as an agreed exhibit, although the exhibit also bears the certificate of tire clerk. The appeal was allowed September 27th. It is evident that the appeal was or was not taken within the time prescribed by section 25a of the Bankruptcy Act of July 1, 1898, c. 541, 30 Stat. 553 (Comp. St. 1913, § 9609), according as the 16th or the 15th of September ;s to be regarded as the date on which the judgment was rendered. If this took place September 15th, the 10 days period within which the appeal might have been taken expired on Saturday, the 25th. If the rendition occurred September 16th, the nominal appeal period ended on Sunday, the 26th, and, according to section 31 of the Bankruptcy Act (Comp. St. 1913, § 9615), was extended to Monday, the 27th, when the appeal was allowed. The natural inference arising from the exhibit which discloses the judgment and the dates in question, as stated, is that the filing date, rather than the other date, there shown indicates the time of rendition of the judgment in accordance with both the appearance docket and the journal of the court.

This view derives support from the order of the court entered September 27, 1915, allowing the appeal and fixing the amount of the appeal bond; it is there stated that the judgment was “rendered on the 16th day of September, 1915,” and it is worthy of notice-that one of the recitals of the appeal bond states that “on the 16th day of September, 1915, * * * judgment was rendered,” etc. There is no apparent reason to believe that the District Judge intended the judgment to become effective until it was regularly filed with the clerk of the court and notation of the filing upon the appearance docket and ..entry upon the journal had taken place. Hence to treat the date appearing at the foot of the judgment as dominating the express filing date would seemingly be to contradict the journal of the court. The journal imports absolute verity; and it may safely be presumed that the date, September 15th, was written by mistake. In re McCall, 145 Fed. 898, 907, 76 C. C. A. 430 (C. C. A. 6). We therefore conclude that the appeal was seasonably allowed. It should be added that, in view of the issues of fact which were concluded below and are contested here, the remedy sought through the petition to revise was inappropriately chosen; and the petition to revise will, for that rea[281]*281son, as well as in consequence of its inconsistency with the appeal, be dismissed/

[2] The controlling feature of the case made here is dependent upon questions of fact. These questions concern the identity of the blue grass seed which was described in the warehouse receipts. The description appearing in the first receipt, No.

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Bluebook (online)
238 F. 278, 151 C.C.A. 294, 1916 U.S. App. LEXIS 1339, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/first-nat-bank-of-paris-v-yerkes-ca6-1916.