Hardt v. Kirkpatrick

91 F.2d 875, 1937 U.S. App. LEXIS 4366
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedJuly 26, 1937
Docket8425
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 91 F.2d 875 (Hardt v. Kirkpatrick) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hardt v. Kirkpatrick, 91 F.2d 875, 1937 U.S. App. LEXIS 4366 (9th Cir. 1937).

Opinion

GARRECHT, Circuit Judge.

On February 16, 1928, the appellee and Mary Kirkpatrick, his wife, executed a note for $4,000, secured by a deed of trust in favor of the appellant. The deed of trust covered a tract of land in San Bernardino county, Cal., of which parcel the appellee and his wife were joint owners. The Pioneer Title Insurance & Trust Company, of San Bernardino, Cal., was named trustee in the deed. Five shares of the capital stock of the Monte Vista Water Company were also conveyed in the same deed.

On September 7, 1933, the appellant becarqe sole owner and holder of the note.

On October 18, 1935, the appellee started a proceeding under section 75 of the Bankruptcy Act, as amended (11 U.S.C.A. § 203), by filing a petition for composition or extension of time to pay his debts.

On April 17, 1936, the appellant filed a petition for a dismissal of the proceeding under section 75, and for leave to sell the property subject to the deed of trust. The appellant’s petition was filed with the conciliation commissioner to whom the appellee’s petition under section 75 had been referred.

On April 23, 1936, the appellee obtained ■an order extending to July 1, 1936, the time for him to apply for approval of a composition or extension proposal.

'On May 15; 1936, the appellant’s petition for leave to foreclose the trust deed by sale of the premises and > to dismiss the ap *877 pellee’s petition was heard by the conciliation commissioner. On the same day, the appellee’s proposal for composition or extension was submitted to his creditors. The appellant indicated that the terms were satisfactory, but insisted upon the dismissal of the proceedings under section 75 as a condition to entering into any composition or extension agreement. No agreement was made.

On June 10, 1936, the appellee filed an amended petition to be adjudged a bankrupt, under section 73 (s) of the Bankruptcy Act, as amended (11 U.S.C.A. § 203 (s), praying that all his property be appraised; that the unencumbered exemption and unencumbered interest or equity in the exemption be set off to the appellee; that he be allowed to retain possession under the supervision and control of the court of “any part or parcel and all of the remainder of” his property, including encumbered exemptions; that he be allowed to pay for such property under the terms of section 75 (s), as amended; and that the court fix the reasonable rental value of the property of which the appellee remained in possession. The appellee was adjudged a bankrupt on the same day.

On September 26, 1936, the conciliation commissioner denied the appellant’s petition for dismissal and leave to sell.

On October 6, 1936, the appellant filed a petition for a review of the commissioner’s order of denial. That petition is still pending in the court below.

On October 13, 1936, the appellant caused the trustee under the deed referred to above to sell the property covered thereby. At that sale, the appellant purchased the property for $5,250, which sum was at least $500 more than the market value of the property, according to an averment contained in the appellant’s answer to the appellee’s petition for an injunction, infra. In the same answer, the appellant denied that any “order was ever made by the above entitled Court prior to said sale on October 13, 1936, restraining Hardt or Pioneer Title Insurance and Trust Company from conducting such sale or any sale.”

The time of the commencement of foreclosure proceedings under the deed of trust is not stated in the pleadings.

On October 19, 1936, the appellee filed a petition for an injunction, setting forth some of the foregoing facts, and praying that the sale under the deed of trust be declared void; that the appellant and his representatives be enjoined from recording the deed issued by the trustee and from endeavoring to obtain possession of the property; and that the appellant and his attorney, John Surr, be required to show cause why they should not be punished for contempt, etc.

On or about October 30, 1936, the appellant filed an answer to the foregoing petition for an injunction, averring several of the facts that have been set out in the present statement.

By agreement of counsel, the matter was submitted to the court below on the verified petition for an injunction and the verified answer thereto, on the records of the court, and on the briefs of counsel; but no evidence was presented to the court.

On November 24, 1936, the court below entered an order, in opinion form, declaring the sale under the trust deed to be invalid, and enjoining the appellant from interfering with the appellee’s possession. In re Kirkpatrick (D.C.) 17 F.Supp. 56.

From that order the present appeal has been taken.

The appellant argues that, since the petition for an injunction, filed by the appellee in the court below, is silent as to the date when the foreclosure proceedings were commenced, it must be assumed that such foreclosure was started before any bankruptcy proceedings were initiated. This argument is based upon the theory that, since the appellee was the moving party, seeking an injunction, the burden was upon him to prove his case. Elsewhere in his brief, however, the appellant states that there is no distinction between sales before adjudication and sales thereafter. With this statement the appellee seems to agree. In its opinion, the court below stated that, “At the time of the sale, the proceeding for conciliation had terminated,” and that “all proceedings for the foreclosure of the deed of trust under the power of sale were initiated while the property was in the custody of this court under proceedings first instituted under section 75 and then continued under section 75 (s) of the Bankruptcy Act.” In re Kirkpatrick, supra, 17 F.Supp. 56, at cage 57.

In view of the fact that the appellant’s answer to the petition for an injunction *878 was likewise silent as to the date on which foreclosure proceedings were instituted, we are assuming for the purpose of this case that such proceedings were initiated after the adjudication of bankruptcy. It is the appellant’s duty to bring up a record that discloses error. Every intendment should be in favor of the lower court’s judgment.

The question here presented is whether, while proceedings under section 75 of the Bankruptcy Act are pending, and after the debtor is adjudged a bankrupt, a creditor may foreclose by nonjudicial sale under a deed of trust without permission of the court.

The appellee insists that the appellant, having submitted himself to the lower court’s jurisdiction by asking permission to sell and by asking review of the conciliation commissioner’s order denying him that right after adjudication, appears to be in contempt as a result of selling the property “in defiance of the court’s denial.”

Section 75 (o) of the Bankruptcy Act (11 U.S.C.A.

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Bluebook (online)
91 F.2d 875, 1937 U.S. App. LEXIS 4366, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hardt-v-kirkpatrick-ca9-1937.