In Re Borgelt

10 F. Supp. 113, 1935 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1637
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Illinois
DecidedMarch 20, 1935
Docket5535, 5536
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 10 F. Supp. 113 (In Re Borgelt) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Borgelt, 10 F. Supp. 113, 1935 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1637 (S.D. Ill. 1935).

Opinion

MAJOR, District Judge.

Benjamin F. Borgelt and Charles. W. Borgelt, brothers, on November' 7, 1934, filed their individual petitions under section 75 of the Bankruptcy Act, as amended, 11 USCA § 203. Each obtained an injunction against Imogene Bohne, Edward J. Cullinane, and J. P. McNally, in their representative capacity as executors, and Margaret .Cullinane, legatee, etc., restraining them from further proceeding in a foreclosure proceedings in the circuit court of Fulton county, 111. The petitioners will hereinafter be referred to as the debtors .and the persons above named enjoined as the creditors.

Decree of foreclosure had been entered, sale held, and a receiver appointed by the state court, who went into possession of the real estate described in the said mortgage, and the petitions in the present matter were filed on the same day and only a few hours prior to the -expiration of the twelve-month period of redemption. The land in question was bid in by the creditors at the foreclosure sale for $28,000. In addition, a deficiency judgment was rendered against debtors in the sum of $4,000. It seems debtors had other obligations of about $5,000, with assets of $4,600, not including the foreclosed land, and the value of said land was stated in debtor’s petitions at $29,000.

Debtor’s petitions were approved by the court as properly filed under the act, referred to the conciliation commissioner of the proper county, and, after certain proceedings before said commissioner, which will hereafter be referred to, a report was made by said commissioner that debtors had failed to obtain a composition or extension agreement with their creditors. The commissioner reported that no proposal had, in good faith, been made by debtors and recommended the proceedings be dismissed. Thereupon, debtors amended their petitions and asked that they be adjudicated bankrupts under section 75 subdivision (s) (11 USCA § 203 (s). Creditors, in the meantime, had filed a petition requesting that the restraining order be vacated; that the petitioners be permitted to obtain a master’s deed to the real estate in question, the fifteen-month period of redemption having. expired; and that debtor’s petitions be dismissed.

The first question presented involves a construction of section 75 of the Bankruptcy Act (see 11 USCA § 203), entitled “Agricultural compositions and extensions,” enacted March 3, 1933, hereafter referred to as the original act, as distinguished from subdivision (s) of the act which became effective June 28, 1934, commonly referred to as the Frazier-Lemlce Act (11 USCA § 203 (s). '

In other words, it is claimed there has been no such compliance with subdivisions (a) to (r), 11 USCA § 203 (a to r), which will permit debtors to be adjudicated under subdivision (s), 11 USCA § 203 (s), and that the petitions should be dismissed for ■such noncompliance. Neither side disputes, in fact it seems certain, that under the lan *115 guage of subdivision (s) “any farmer failing to obtain the acceptance of a majority in number and amount of all creditors whose claims are affected by a composition or extension proposal * * * may amend his petition or answer asking to be adjudged a bankrupt,” a debtor may be so adjudged only when the procedure outlined in the original act has been followed.

Counsel for the creditors earnestly insist that before a debtor may be adjudged under subdivision (s), he must have, in good faith, made a valid offer of composition of his unsecured claims and an offer of extension of secured claims. In other words, the contention is made, forcibly and with considerable logic, that the “terms of composition” which the debtor is permitted to offer can have no application to secured creditors and such a proposal, if made, cannot be held to have been made in good faith. It is claimed that the only kind of a proposal which may properly be made to secured creditors is one of extension. On the other hand, it is the position of counsel for debtors that the terms “composition or extension” apply alike to secured and unsecured creditors.

The court is obliged to construe the various paragraphs as they affect the questions involved and to determine what was the intention of Congress as it can be gathered from the language contained in the act. The question here presented, so far as this court is advised, has not, heretofore, been passed upon.

I assume there would be little, if any, dispute among the courts or members of the bar that section 75, taken as a whole, was intended to enable farm debtors, either insolvent or unable to meet their obligations, to retain control of their property by turning over to their creditors, including secured creditors, the fair and reasonable value of said property; that under the original act it was intended to provide a means whereby such purpose might be accomplished by agreement between a debtor and his creditors, and that under subdivision (s), it was intended to permit a similar result without such agreement. The original act provides the procedure by which the former result may be accomplished, and subdivision (s) the procedure by which the latter result may be accomplished. The law undoubtedly should be construed in a manner which will produce the intended result if that can be done without .overlooking the safeguards provided in the law for the protection and benefit of creditors. While the law was enacted to afford relief to distressed farm debtors, yet it must not be overlooked that many of the creditors affected by the operation of the law are, perhaps, in financial circumstances as bad as those for whose benefit the legislation was enacted. One seeking benefits provided by the law after initiating the procedure must, in my opinion, carry the burden of pursuing the various steps provided diligently, honestly, in good faith, and without unnecessary delay.

The position of counsel for the creditors, that a debtor is not permitted to offer a proposal of composition to secured creditors, cannot, in my opinion, be maintained. To do so is to read into the act words which are not there. In support of this argument, section 12 of the Bankruptcy Act (11 USCA § 30) is cited as being a comparable situation to that here presented. It is claimed that because the courts have construed that section as not being applicable to secured creditors, a like construction must be placed upon the act with which we are now concerned. It must be remembered, however, that heretofore Congress has not seen fit, in bankruptcy legislation, to invade the field of secured creditors. Here it has deliberately done so and has used the words “composition or extension” with reference to secured and unsecured creditors, without distinction. It is not easy to believe that Congress, if it had intended that “proposals of composition” should apply only to unsecured creditors, and only “proposals of extension” could be made to secured creditors, would have failed to say so, when it would have only required the addition of the words “to unsecured creditors” after the word “composition” and the words “to secured creditors” after the word “extension.” There is to be found, however, in subdivisions (g), (i), and especially (k), 11 USCA § 203 (g, i, and especially k), relied upon by counsel for creditors, language apparently inconsistent with this view. It seems to me, however, that these provisions are for the benefit of the nonassenting creditors and that subdivision (k) is especially for the benefit and protection of nonassenting secured creditors.

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Bluebook (online)
10 F. Supp. 113, 1935 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1637, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-borgelt-ilsd-1935.