In re Borchert

47 F. Supp. 387, 1942 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2303
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. California
DecidedOctober 29, 1942
DocketNos. 33519-M, 38520-M
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 47 F. Supp. 387 (In re Borchert) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Borchert, 47 F. Supp. 387, 1942 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2303 (S.D. Cal. 1942).

Opinion

McCORMICK, District Judge.

This is the review of an order of the conciliation commissioner dated December 18, 1941. The order is effectual in the estate of each bankrupt although it has been formally entered only in the matter of Ernst Borchert. It has been stipulated that the order, if confirmed, is applicable in the estate of Blanche L. Borchert, as well. It thus appears that the same questions for decision are involved in each proceeding and, accordingly, this memorandum and order relates to the estate of each bankrupt.

From the findings of fact of the conciliation commissioner and the record before us it appears that Ernst Borchert and Blanche L. Borchert, husband and wife, hereinafter called the Borcherts, were in good faith engaged in agricultural pursuits, operating the parcels of real property involved in this matter as citrus orchards. Being unable to meet their financial obligations as they matured and desiring to effect a composition or extension of time to pay their debts, the Borcherts on May 8, 1941, filed their respective petitions under Section 75 of the Bankruptcy Act, 11 U.S.C.A. § 203. On August 5, 1941, the debtors, unable to obtain the acceptance of a majority in number and amount of all creditors whose claims were affected by the composition or extension proposal, regularly filed a petition under subsection s of Section 75 of the Bankruptcy Act and were duly adjudged bankrupts under said subsection.

The secured indebtedness of the bankrupts to Bank of America National Trust and Savings Association, hereinafter called Bank of America, the petitioner on review herein, amounts to $96,425.13, and represents principal, interest, and advances on two promissory notes secured by a deed of trust executed by the Borcherts on August 18, 1938. A claim for such amount has been duly filed and has been allowed by the conciliation commissioner. The deed of trust constitutes a first lien upon one parcel of the bankrupts’ realty and a third lien upon another parcel thereof which is also encumbered by a first trust deed in favor of Federal Land Bank of Berkeley. The notes to Bank of America are further secured by a mortgage of crops and chattels, also dated August 18, 1938, executed by the Borcherts to Bank of America and constitute a lien upon all crops grown upon all the real property covered by the above mentioned two deeds of trust, and also upon certain farming implements and machinery of the Borcherts, until such time as the indebtedness to the Bank of America is paid in full. The crop mortgage involved in this proceeding is a so-called continuing crop mortgage, a security recognized by the laws of the State of California in certain situations in which the broad emergency powers of subsection s of Section 75 of the National Bankruptcy Act are not necessarily operative.

Subsequent to the adjudication under subsection s of Section 75 and pursuant to the required procedure therein, an appraisal of the real property of the Borcherts has been duly made. No objections have been urged or filed to such appraisal.

On December 18, 1941, the commissioner, consonant to the terms of subsection s, made an order setting aside exemptions, staying proceedings, vesting possession, and fixing rental upon the occupied premises to be paid by the bankrupts. As the bankrupts had no means of raising revenue other than the farm property itself, it was provided by the terms of this order that for a period of one year the rental of the farm lands operated by the Borcherts be fixed at one-fifth of the gross income from said property, except on one parcel of such farm property (that upon which the Federal Land Bank held a first trust deed), the rental be fixed at one-tenth of the gross income. The order further provided that all expenditures for the upkeep and operation of the property and all other necessary expenditures, except delinquent and current taxes, should be paid out of the remaining gross income. For the balance of the three-year period prescribed by subsection s, the rental of the property was to be fixed by the commissioner on such terms as he might later order.

At the hearing of this review in open court the parties stipulated that Bank of America as crop mortgagee is entitled to all crop proceeds accruing prior to the date of adjudication under subsection s of Section 75. This court acquiesced in such stipulation with the reservation that under the Adair case, infra, necessary administrative expenses would be allowed in settlements of accounts.

Bank of America opposes the rental orders and contends that as it is the holder of a deed of trust constituting a lien upon [389]*389the premises and is also the holder of a continuing crop mortgage to additionally secure the payment and discharge of its lien, the order fixing rental from the proceeds of crops which may be grown upon the premises is “illegal, invalid and unconstitutional,” because it amounts to a substantial impairment of the lienholder’s security to such an extent that such security is completely and irrevocably lost to the creditor bank.

With this contention we are unable to agree. The primary purpose and function of the Frazier-Lemke Act is to afford temporary relief to financially embarrassed farmers whose circumstances despite present difficulties afford a reasonable expectation of ultimate financial rehabilitation. The Act itself looks toward the maintenance of the farm as a going concern and for the continuance of its operation after the filing of a petition pursuant to its provisions. To hold, therefore, that farm debtors who have no means of raising revenue other than from the farm property itself may not avail themselves of the Frazier-Lemke provisions of the Bankruptcy Act if there is a continuing crop mortgage upon the production of the farm property, would defeat the very purposes for which said Act was created.

The purview of this remedial statute has been expressed by the Supreme Court in John Hancock Mutual Life Ins. Co. v. Bartels, 308 U.S. 180, 60 S.Ct. 221, 223, 84 L.Ed. 176, in the following broad language: “The plain purpose of Section 75 was to afford relief to such debtors who found themselves in economic distress however severe, by giving them the chance to seek an agreement with their creditors subsections a to r, and, failing this, to ask for the other relief afforded by subsection s. [Italics supplied] * * * The scheme of the statute is designed to provide an orderly procedure so as to give whatever relief may properly be afforded to the distressed farmer-debtor, while protecting the interests of his creditors by assuring the fair application of whatever property the debtor has to the payment of their claims, the priorities and liens of secured creditors being preserved.”

An indispensable requirement of the debtor’s right to possession of the farm property under subsection s is the rental provision of the statute, and if availability of this financial relief measure extends only to farmers whose distress has not been so “severe” as to compel crop mortgaging, then the legislation fails to attain its objective in those situations where it is mostly needed and for which, in my opinion, it is principally intended. To so construe the terms of this remedial statute is not only contrary to its express language, but the interpretation contended for does violence to the plain purpose of Congress in enacting the emergency relief measure. Section 75 of the Bankruptcy Act expressly makes its terms and provisions available to “any farmer” regardless of the severity of his economic distress.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Reichert v. Federal Land Bank
139 F.2d 627 (Eighth Circuit, 1944)
Klevmoen v. Farm Credit Administration
138 F.2d 609 (Eighth Circuit, 1943)
In re Lange
48 F. Supp. 753 (S.D. California, 1943)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
47 F. Supp. 387, 1942 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2303, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-borchert-casd-1942.