Hardy v. Gray

144 F. 922, 1906 U.S. App. LEXIS 3911
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedFebruary 21, 1906
DocketNos. 592, 593
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 144 F. 922 (Hardy v. Gray) 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
Hardy v. Gray, 144 F. 922, 1906 U.S. App. LEXIS 3911 (1st Cir. 1906).

Opinion

PUTNAM, Circuit Judge.

These two cases are appeals from the District Court for the District of Massachusetts, sitting in bankruptcy, disallowing two claims offered in proof, on the ground that preferences had been received by the two creditors which had not been returned. The referee allowed the claims, and the court reversed the referee. One of - the creditors, now appellants, is Horace C. Hardy, and the other is the copartnership of Powers & Mayer, each residing in the city of New York, and having his business establishment there. The bankrupt is Frank A. Andrews, residing, and who did business as a jeweler, in the city of Boston. The provision of the statute immediatety involved is subdivision “g” of section 57 of the bankruptcy law of July 1, 1898 (30 Stat. 560, c. 541 [U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 3443]) amended by section 12 of the act of February 5, 1903 (32 Stat. 799, c. 487- [U. S. Comp. St. Supp. 1905, p. 688]), so as to read as follows:

[923]*923“Tlie claims oí creditors who hare received preferences, voidable under section sixty, subdivision b, or to whom conveyances, transfers, assignments, or incumbrances, void or voidable under section sixty-seven, subdivision c, have been made or given, shall not he allowed unless such creditors shall surrender sneh preferences, conveyances, transfers, assignments, or incum-brances.”

Subdivision “g,” before it was amended, read as follows: -

“The claims of creditors who receive preferences shall not be allowed unless such creditors shall surrender their preferences.”

The pith of the amendment so far as concerns these appeals, is the reference to section 60, subd. “b” (30 Stat. 562 [U. S. Comp, St. 1901, p. 3445]), as follows:

“If a bankrupt shall have given a preference within four months before • lie filing' of a petition, or after the filing of the petition and before the adjudication, and the person receiving it, or to be benefited thereby, or his agent acting therein, shall have had reasonable cause to believe (lmt it was intended thereby to give a preference, it shall be voidable by the trustee, and he may recover the property or its value from such person.”

Prior to this amendment, this subdivision was regarded as broad enough to include a preference according to subdivision “a” of section 60 of the same act, as construed in Pirie v. Chicago Title & Trust Company, 182 U. S. 438, 21 Sup. Ct. 906, 45 L. Ed. 1171. There the broad distinction was made between subdivisions “a” and “b” of section 60, so that it was stated at pages 446 and 447 of 182 U. S., pages 910, 911, of 21 Sup. Ct. (45 L. Ed. 1171) that, under subdivision “h,” a transfer from tiie bankrupt may be'avoid’ed by the trustee, subject, however, to the limitation, among others, that the creditor had reason to believe that a preference was intended, while it was held at pages 451 of 182 U. S., page 911, of 21 Sup. Ct. (45 L. Ed. 1171) and sequence that, under subdivision “a,” the intent is not material. Consequently, four judges dissenting, such a construction was given subdivision “a" that, in connection with subdivision “g” of section 67, as it stood before it was amended by the act of February 5, 1903, the claim of a creditor who had received a transfer from an insolvent person who afterwards became bankrupt, could not be proved without first surrendering what was received, by the transfer, provided the transfer operated, as a matter of fact, to give him a greater percentage than other creditors of the same class might ultimately receive, and this without regard to the actual intention of the parties. When, however, subdivision “g” of section 57 of the act of 1898 was, by the amendment of 1903, limited to the circumstances of subdivision “b” of section 60, the expressions contained in the opinion in Pirie v. Chicago Title & Trust Company, 182 U. S. at pages 446 and 417, 21 Sup. Ct. at pages 910, 911, 45 L. Ed. 1171. applied to the extent of making it one of the conditions to the barring of a creditor from proving his claim that he “had reason to believe that a preference was intended.” Thus, as the statutes now stand, so far as concerns any-alleged preferences involved in these appeals, all artificiality has disappeared, and the word preference, as well as the word intended, maybe read with their natural meaning, subject, of course, to the general [924]*924rules by virtue of which, under certain circumstances, an act from which a result ensues may sometimes be held to contemplate and purpose the result

We must, however, call attention to the fact that the act of 189 S has given an artificial meaning to the word “insolvent,” thereby complicating very much the construction of the statutes as applied to alleged preferences, and rendering to a large extent inapplicable the decisions of courts of authority on statutes where the word insolvency is to be read in its ordinary business sense. What we refer to is paragraph 15 of section 1 (30 Stat. 544 [U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 3418]) as follows:

“A person shall be deemed insolvent within'the provisions of this act whenever the aggregate of his property, exclusive of any property which he may have conveyed, transferred, concealed or removed, or permitted to he concealed or removed, with intent to defraud, hinder or delay his creditors, shall not, at a fair .valuation, be sufficient in amount to pay his debts.”

This has established so artificial a rule that the usual indicia by virtue of which a man is regarded as insolvent, and, consequently, by virtue of which a creditor may be said to have reason to believe that he is insolvent, or the reverse, become, to a very large extent, of no importance. This fact was illustrated by In re Pettingill & Co. (D. C.) 135 Fed. 218, a case which came before us incidentally under the same title in (C. C. A.) 137 Fed. 840. There, marked and numerous indications of insolvency in the natural business sense of the word existed, but it was justly said that “grounds for réasonable belief in a present inability to pay debts in the course of business are not necessarily grounds for believing that a man’s property at a fair valuation is not sufficient to pay his debts.”

The learned judge of the District Court found in the pending cases that the bankrupt was in fact insolvent within the meaning of the existing statutes at the time of the alleged preferences in question. We do not understand that this ,is disputed. He also found that the debtor knew that he was insolvent. This is disputed. Evidently he also found that the creditors had reasonable cause to believe that the debtor was insolvent. Then he proceeded:

“If the debtor is insolvent, he intends preference by any payment of a preexisting debt. If the creditor has reasonable cause to believe that the debtor is insolvent, then the creditor has reasonable cause to believe that a preference is intended. Under the circumstances here presented, the court has to determine only if these two creditors severally had reason to believe the bankrupt was insolvent at the time the payments were made to them by him. If the question is answered in the affirmative as to either, that creditor must surrender his preference.”

It appears to us that, by this, the learned judge eliminated the element of actual intention on the part of the debtor to give a preference.

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Bluebook (online)
144 F. 922, 1906 U.S. App. LEXIS 3911, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hardy-v-gray-ca1-1906.