In re Auerbach

53 F.2d 482, 1931 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1791
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedAugust 5, 1931
DocketNo. 49421
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 53 F.2d 482 (In re Auerbach) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Auerbach, 53 F.2d 482, 1931 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1791 (S.D.N.Y. 1931).

Opinion

HENRY K. DAVIS, Referee.

Bankrupt, a manufacturing confectioner of this city, had a petition in bankruptcy filed against him August 9, 1930. He was duly adjudicated August 22, 1930, and thereafter Irving Trust Company was duly elected and is now acting as his trustee.

Agreed statements of facts were entered into by the attorneys, thus obviating the taking of oral testimony.

There are five claimants, viz. Maria L. Figueroa, Frank Navarro, Rosario Biggica, Sophie Sabath, widow of Aaron Sabath, and Abe Altman, and also it is sought to file nunc pro tune, six months having elapsed since tile date of adjudication, the claim of Vito Partuesi.

The first five claims above mentioned were all duly made by tho said claimants and filed in the office of tho referee within tho six-month period.

The claims of Figueroa, Navarro, and Biggica are all claims based on personal injuries received by claimants while in the employ of bankrupt prior to the filing of the petition herein, viz. August 9, 1930, and awards were made to them by the Compensation Commission after the date of the filing of the petition, viz. to Figueroa September 5, 1930, Navarro October 14, 1930, Biggica October 14,1930. Sabath’s was a death claim wherein the award was made to decedent’s widow, the claimant, September 30, 1930; The claim of Abe Altman was for injuries sustained September 15, 1923; the award was made March 31, 1925, for an extended period with periodical payments, and it is claimed that tho payments to which claimant would have been entitled, if there had been no bankruptcy, and if all the payments were made, would amount to $2,440.

The claims here considered are filed under section 63a of the Bankruptcy Act (11 USCA § 103(a), which is as follows: “Debts of the bankrupt may be proved and allowed against his estate which are (1) a fixed liability, as evidenced by a judgment or an instrument in writing, absolutely owing at the time of the filing of the petition against him, whether then payable or not, with any interest thereon which would have been recoverable at that date or with a rebato of interest upon such as were not then payable and did not bear interest; (2) due as costs taxable against an involuntary bankrupt who was at the time of the filing of the petition against Mm plaintiff in a cause of action which would pass to tho trustee and which the trustee declines to prosecute after notice; (3) founded upon a claim for taxable costs incurred in good faith by a creditor before the filing of a petition in an action to recover a provable debt; (4) founded upon an open account, or upon a contract express or implied; and (5) founded upon provable debts reduced to judgments after the filing of the petition and before the consideration of the bankrupt’s application for a discharge, less costs incurred and interest accrued after the filing of the petition and up> to tho time of the entry of such judgments.”

If there are claims against an estate which can be proved and allowed because they are within the provisions of the statute just quoted, and they have not been liquidated, they can be liquidated as provided in section 63b of tho Bankruptcy Act (11 USCA § 103(h). It is not claimed that liquidation has been had in this case as section 63b, ante, directs.

The principal question in this case is whether a claim for personal injuries received prior to the filing of the petition and for which an award was made after the filing of the petition is a claim which can be allowed within the meaning of section 63a of the Bankruptcy Act, ante.

[484]*484It must be conceded that Congress in 1898, when the present Bankruptcy Act was passed, did not have in mind the legislation based on the police power of the state which some fifteen years later found expression in Workmen’s Compensation Act (Consol. Laws, c. 67, Laws N. Y. 1914, c. 41). This statute was upheld in Jensen v. Southern Pacific Co., 215 N. Y. 514,109 F. E. 600, L. R. A. 1916A, 403, Ann. Cas. 1916B, 276; White v. N. Y. Cent. & H. R. R. Co., 216 N. Y. 653, 110 N. E. 1051; and N. Y. Cent. R. Co. v. White, 243 U. S. 188, 37 S. Ct. 247, 61 L. Ed. 667, L. R. A. 1917D, 1, Ann. Cas. 1917D, 629.

The main authority asserted for the claims here considered is Post v. Burger & Gohlke, 216 N. Y. 544, 111 N. E. 351, 353, Ann. Cas. 1916B, 158, where Judge Chase said: “The failure to provide such insurance takes away in part the benefits that the employer receives pursuant to the act. The employer in this case assented to the contract of employment under the act to the extent of providing insurance with the insurance carrier. The act, in view of its humane purpose, should be construed to intend that in every ease of employment there is a constructive contract between the employer and employee, general in its terms and unlimited as to territory, that the employer shall pay as provided by the act for a disability or the death of the employee as therein stated. The duty under the statute defines the terms of the contract.”

The question at issue in the Post Case was whether the Workmen’s Compensation Act applied to an injury received in Few Jersey by a workman engaged in his employer’s business for an employer insured in Few York. The court’s decision, it seems to me, is found in the following quotation: “Our conclusion as to the intention of the Legislature is reached from the act as a whole. The intention is also specifically shown by' the fact as already stated that an employee, as defined by this act, includes a person engaged in the course of his employment away from the plant of the employer. The language of the statute, if construed literally, and we see no reason why it should not be, expressly includes the employee in this case, as he was engaged in his employment in Few Jersey, away from the plant of his employer, and under the employer’s express direction.”

The quotation on which the Attorney General relies, that the act makes a “constructive contract,” that is, a contract implied in law or in fact, is dicta, not necessary for the decision which the court reached, to wit, that the act “expressly includes the employee in this case, as he was engaged in Ms employment in Few Jersey, away from the plant of his employer, and under the employer’s express direction.” Post v. Burger & Gohlke, supra.

That the relations of the parties under the Workmen’s Compensation Act is- not based on constructive contract the Few York Court of Appeals has directly stated. In Cameron v. Ellis Cons. Co., 252 N. Y. 394, 169 N. E. 622, 623, the Court said: “The relations of employer and employee arise by agreement. The Workmen’s Compensation Law regulates these relations from the time the employment begins. Obligations and rights under the statute are not elective. They rest upon the command of the state, and not upon agreement of the parties. The concept of a ‘constructive contract’ to assume obligations which are created by law is open to criticism. Smith v. Heine Boiler Co., 224 N. Y. 9,119 N. E. 878, Ann. Cas. 1918D, 316, and authorities .there cited. Even if, in a sense, it is only a fiction, it points the way to the principle that the obligations created by the Workmen’s Compensation Law are an integral part of the relations of employer and employee, and are coterminous with the employment regulated by the state. Obligation to pay or provide compensation for injury arising out of and in the course of an employment which is regulated by the Workmen’s Compensation Law is imposed by the statute.

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Bluebook (online)
53 F.2d 482, 1931 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1791, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-auerbach-nysd-1931.