In re Jordan & Blake

2 F. 319
CourtDistrict Court, D. Maine
DecidedJuly 1, 1880
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 2 F. 319 (In re Jordan & Blake) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Jordan & Blake, 2 F. 319 (D. Me. 1880).

Opinion

Eox, D. J.

Dexter Jordan, one of the firm of Jordan & Blake, was administrator on the estate of Robert M. York, and having collected considerable sums of money as administrator used them for firm purposes — an account being opened on the firm books of Jordan & Blake by which the “Estate of R. M. York” was, from time to time, credited with all sums thus received by Jordan, and charged with all disbursements made by him for the estate. The firm having been adjudged bankrupt, and Jordan having since died, Mrs. York, as administratrix de bonis non, claims to prove against the firm estate and also the individual estate of Jordan this balance due from Jordan, there being assets of both of said estates. The register allowed the proof against Jordan’s estate, and disallowed the proof against the firm estate, and from this an appeal is taken.

The construction given by Judge Lowell in In re Blandin, 5 B. R. 41, to the provisions of the bankrupt act respecting [320]*320proofs of debts relieves these matters of some objections of a technical nature which otherwise might perhaps occasion doubt. In that case the wife of a bankrupt had loaned her husband money, and claimed to prove for the same against his estate, although by the laws of Massachusetts she could not sustain an action at law for its recovery. Judge Lowell there held that equitable claims were within the scope of the bankrupt act, and that it was the intent of the act to give all creditors an equal share of the assets without regard to the mode in which their rights might have been enforced if there had been no bankruptcy; that as to both debtors and creditors the act is highly remedial, and the district court is vested with most ample equitable powers to enable it to work out full remedies to all persons; that, although the twenty-fourth section provided, on appeal, the ordinary remedy by a suit at law, the circuit court might take such order in relation to appeals not fully provided for by section 24 as may be necessary to conform the proceedings to the nature of the case. James, L. J., in Ex parte Adamson, L. R. 8 Ch. Div. 820, states the-law as follows: “It being the established rule in bankruptcy that every debt which a person could, either in his own name or in the name of any other person, recover at law or in equity was a provable debt in bankruptcy.”

Jordan, as the administrator of York’s estate, was not authorized to appropriate to the use of Jordan & Blake the funds held by him in that capacity. It was in law a breach of his trust as administrator, and, although no fraud was intended by him, his act was in violation of law. By the entries upon the firm books of the various sums thus paid to the firm his copartner, Blake, became cognizant of the transaction, and the firm thereby became chargeable as trustees for the amount thus loaned to the firm by Jordan as administrator. In England there is a uniform current of authorities that when trust funds are thus misappropriated and loaned by an executor or trustee, under a will, to a firm, with the sanction of its members, this amount constitutes a joint and several claim, provable against the firm and the individual members of the firm who have knowledge of the transac[321]*321tion. Under the law, as it was formerly declared in England, and so long as double proof was not permitted, it might be that the creditor was put to his election whether to proceed eventually against the firm estate or that of its members, though at the present day, since the act of 1869, it may be that double proof might now be permitted. No such question of election can here arise, as our bankrupt act and the decisions of the courts here allow of double proof in cases where a joint and several liability exists.

The following are some of the English cases which permit proof of debt to be made when the executor or trustee has committed a breach of trust by improperly loaning the funds in his hands: Ex parte Watson, 2 V. & B. 414; Ex parte Heaton, Buck’s Bankruptcy Cases, 35, in which the vice chancellor says: “Those who receive trust property from a trustee, in breach of his trust, become themselves trustees, if they have notice of the trust;” Ex parte Poulson, De Gex, 79; Ex parte Woodin, 3 Mont. Dea. & De Gex, 399; 6 De Gex, M. & G. 795, 801; Ex parte Carne, L. R. 3 Ch. 463; Ex parte Norres, L. R. 4 Ch. 280; Ex parte Adamson, L. R. 8 Ch. Div. 807.

In Adair v. Shaw, 1 Sch. & Le Froy, 262, Lord Bedesdale says: “Trusts are enforced, not only against those persons who rightfully are possessed of the trust property as trustees, but also against all persons who come into possession of the property bound by the trust, with notice of the trust, and whoever so comes into possession is considered as bound, with respect to that special property, to the execution of the trust.” Many of the authorities will be found in 2 Lindley on Part. 1247.

Judge Treat, in In re Tesson, 9 B. R. 379, held that where an executor had invested funds of the estate in his partnership business, with the knowledge and assent of his copartners, the parties entitled to the fund may prove their debts against the partnership, although they have proved against the estate of the executor. The only point upon which the learned judge appears to have entertained any doubt was whether they could pursue both the firm and individual [322]*322estates. By later decisions this point is clearly established. It is clear, therefore, from these authorities, that for this wrongful use of these trust funds by the partnership the partnership and its members have become chargeable, and that a joint and several claim was thereby created against the joint and several estates.

Can an administratrix de bonis non sustain such proofs ? It is certainly for the interest of all concerned in the York estate, whether as creditors, legatees, heirs, or sureties on his administrator’s bond given by Jordan to the judge of probate, that these proofs should be sustained, if possible, in behalf of the administratrix de bonis, so that the fund may pass under her control and be administered according to law as part of the assets of the estate; and, after some deliberation, I am satisfied that it may be so done.

By the law of this state, (Rev. St. c. 72, § 15,) the judge of probate may expressly authorize any party interested to commence a suit on a probate bond for the benefit of the estate, and the judgment and execution, by section 17, are recovered by the judge of probate in trust for all parties interested in the penalty of the bond, and he shall require the delinquent administrator to account for the amount of the same, if still in office; but if not, he shall assign it to the rightful administrator, to be collected and the avails thereof accounted for and distributed, or otherwise disposed of, as assets. This statute has so far changed the common law, as declared by the supreme court of the United States in 16 Wallace, (Bull v. New Mexico,) that that decision is no longer applicable in this state. As the law now is, not only the funds belonging to the estate in the hands of the administrator at his death or removal are assets which go to the new administrator, hut all gums recovered from him and his bondsmen for breach of his duty as administrator are to be received by the new administrator and treated as assets.

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Bluebook (online)
2 F. 319, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-jordan-blake-med-1880.