Iglesias v. Banco Territorial y Agricola de Puerto Rico

268 F. 479, 1920 U.S. App. LEXIS 2328
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedNovember 19, 1920
DocketNo. 1455
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 268 F. 479 (Iglesias v. Banco Territorial y Agricola de Puerto Rico) 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
Iglesias v. Banco Territorial y Agricola de Puerto Rico, 268 F. 479, 1920 U.S. App. LEXIS 2328 (1st Cir. 1920).

Opinion

BINGHAM, Circuit Judge.

In July, 1912, the Utuado Sugar Company was put into the hands of a receiver on the application of the Gregg Company, limited. It owned lands for the cultivation of sugar cane and a factory for the manufacture of raw sugar, including a railway track, cars, and locomotives. October 6, 1911, it mortgaged the greater part of its property to the appellee, the Banco Territorial y Agricola of Porto Rico, as trustee, to secure an issue of bonds for $200,000.

On June 30, 1913, the receiver appointed in the proceedings petitioned the court for leave to borrow money and to issue therefor receiver’s certificates in a sum not exceeding $50,000, the certificates to “be a first and prior lien upon the entire crop o E sugar, or part thereof, which may correspond to the Utuado Sugar Company or to the receiver under the contracts now or hereafter to be in force between it and the ‘colonos.’ ” On the same day an order was entered authorizing the receiver to borrow money for use in the administration of the estate and particularly for*the cultivation of crops and the operation of the plant as prayed for, and to issue receiver’s certificates therefor; and it was further provided therein that the certificates “shall be a first and prior lien upon all of the sugar which may become the property of the Utuado Sugar Company as the result of grinding canes during the next ensuing crop of 1913-1914,” and that “the receiver may make such contract or contracts as he may deem to the best interest of the estate under his charge, for the selling of sugars to be [480]*480manufactured during such crop, and such contracts shall be made on the best terms which the said receiver may be able to obtain.”

September 5, 1913, the receiver entered into an arrangement with Luis E. Iglesias, the appellant, for a loan of $30,000, which was evidenced by a notarial deed wherein the order of June 30, 1913, was referred to as constituting the authority of the receiver in the premises. In this deed it was provided that the loan of $30,000 shall constitute “a first and preferred lien upon all of the sugars which may correspond with the Utuado Sugar Company in the said crop by virtue of the grinding contracts above set forth in this deed, and any other sugars which may be made from other canes of the Utuado Sugar Company or other persons and likewise upon all the properties, rights and actions which may belong to said, corporation by reason of said' contracts or which said corporation may acquire by virtue of said contracts.”

The receiver in the operation of the plant and the manufacture of the 1913-1914 crop was unsuccessful, and in April, 1914, the court, being of the opinion that further grinding of the crop would result in a loss to all parties in interest, ordered the grinding stopped. Out of the proceeds of the crop the receiver paid Iglesias $17,705.50, leaving a balance of $12,294.50.

July 15, 1914, Iglesias filed a petition which was served upon the receiver of the Utuado Sugar Company and the attorneys for certain creditors. In this petition he prayed that he be granted a lien on all the sugar cane then growing or thereafter to be grown, and upon all the property of the Utuado Sugar Company, and that the lien on the latter property be declared to be paramount to any mortgage indebtedness or any operating expense of the receivership. At this time there was pending before the court an application by some or all of the mortgage bondholders and other creditors for a sale of the property and assets of the company, including the mortgaged property, and for a distribution of the proceeds among the bondholders and creditors.

July 22, 1914, the court entered a decree directing a sale of all the property and assets of the company in two separate lots, the first lot to “’comprise all of the property included and described in the terms of the mortgage securing the mortgage bonds of the said defendant company,” and the second lot “all of the balance of the property and assets of the said defendant company of every kind or nature and wheresoever situated.” In the same decree a master was appointed who was directed to pass upon the accounts of the receiver, the claim of Iglesias, and any other accounts against the company and determine their priorities; also to report with reference to die names and amounts of all the bondholders.

December 7, 1914, the master filed a report in which he found that Iglesias’ security had been exhausted, and that he was entitled to no .priority for the balance of his claim. Exceptions were taken to the report, which were sustained, the court holding that the claim of Iglesias did not rank with the ordinary debts of the corporation, but was an administration debt and “must be protected as other administration debts,” but did not wish to be understood as declaring that it was “one which takes priority of the mortgage debt.” The matter was [481]*481then referred to a master to determine “(1) how much of the money borrowed from petitioner Iglesias now unpaid was used in the preservation of the property; (2) how much was used for the operation of the central, including advances and cultivation of crop, the two amounts to be reported separately; and (3) how much the crop of 1913-14 would have produced after deducting expenses of preservation of the mill and plant if the grinding had not been stopped,” and stating that “for the first a lieu on crop and corpus will attach according to the principles above declared; to the second such a lien will be denied, except out of the estimated net crop proceeds, if any, found under (3) the third head.”

On March 11, 1916, the master filed a report finding the receiver had paid Iglesias $17,705.50, leaving a balance due him of $12,294.50; that besides the $30,000 borrowed from Iglesias the sum of $1,604.96 was realized from the sale of molasses and out of these sums $7,283.60 was expended for the preservation of the property — that is, went into the mill, buildings, and other equipment; that 95 per cent, of these expenses, or $6,919.42, was paid for with Iglesias’ money; and that, as the balance of $12,294.50. due Iglesias was approximately 40.10 per cent, of the $30,000 advanced by him, his proportion of the above expense now due him for the preservation of the property was $2,774.68. He also found that the portion of the money borrowed from Iglesias that was used for the operation of the central and the cultivation of the crop was $9,519.82.

April 22, 1916, the court entered an order confirming the master’s report and making the claim of Iglesias for $2,774.68 preferred, and stating that it should rank with the expenses of the receivership; but as to the balance of his claim for $9,519.82 and the order of its payment the court reserved its decision. On August 10, 1916, the court handed down an opinion in which it held that the balance of $9,519.82 due Iglesias was an administration debt, but “will have to rank in a class by itself after all other receivership claims which have heretofore been allowed. It will stand at the foot of the list, but will rank as a receivership claim. It will necessarily come ahead of all claims antedating the receivership debts, such as the claims of Armstrong and others.”

,\o action appears to have been taken under the decree of July 22, 1914, so far as concerns the sale of the property covered by the mortgage given to secure the bonds. October 5, 1918, the Banco Territorial y Agrícola, as trustee for the bondholders, appeared in the receivership proceedings and filed a petition asking leave to foreclose its mortgage.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
268 F. 479, 1920 U.S. App. LEXIS 2328, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/iglesias-v-banco-territorial-y-agricola-de-puerto-rico-ca1-1920.