In Re Retail Stores Delivery Corporation

5 F. Supp. 892, 1933 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1107
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedDecember 11, 1933
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 5 F. Supp. 892 (In Re Retail Stores Delivery Corporation) 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 Retail Stores Delivery Corporation, 5 F. Supp. 892, 1933 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1107 (S.D.N.Y. 1933).

Opinion

PATTERSON, District Judge.

The trustee in bankruptcy of Retail Stores Delivery Corporation brought a summary proceeding against the National City Bank, as successor to the Bank of America, to compel the turning over of the sum of $6,936.30. The referee who heard the matter granted the relief asked for to the extent of $1,040.01.' The trustee is satisfied with the result; the bank questions the correctness of the ruling.

Prior, to bankruptcy, the bankrupt maintained an account with the Bank of America. An involuntary petition was filed on May 7, 1931. On May 8 the bank received notice of the pendency of the proceeding and shortly *893 thereafter applied the bankrupt's entire balance toward payment of an unmatured loan owed it by the bankrupt. No complaint is made of this transaction. On May 16 the bankrupt, which was still continuing business, deposited in the bank cheeks payable to its order totaling $7,226.29 and on the same day was permitted by the bank to withdraw, by checks payable to “cash,” sums aggregating $6,936.30 against the funds deposited. Of the sum so withdrawn by the bankrupt, $1,500 was paid to the wife of the bank’s manager in payment of a debt owed to her by the bankrupt. What the bankrupt did with the balance does not appear. There was an adjudication in bankruptcy on May 20 and several weeks later the trustee was appointed. It also appears, though I think that the fact is of no importance, that a receiver had been appointed coincident with the filing of the petition in bankruptcy, but by order of May 12 the receiver was stayed from acting until further order. The receiver was not functioning on May 16, when the deposits and withdrawals were made, and the bank, though notified of the filing of the petition against the bankrupt, apparently had no notice of the receivership.

In its answer to the • petition brought against it, the bank protested that it was not subject to summary jurisdiction of the bankruptcy court, on the ground (among others) that the money received by it and paid out was not part of the bankrupt estate and had never been subject to the jurisdiction of the bankruptcy court. At the hearings before the referee the bank proved conclusively that of the $7,226.29 deposited by the bankrupt on May 16, the amount of $5,000 represented money borrowed by it from the Lurie Auto Company several days after petition filed for which none of its property was pledged, and the amount of $896.29 was money earned by the bankrupt for services rendered after petition filed. These two amounts totaled $5,-896.29. There was no evidence as to the source of the remaining $1,330. The referee held that the deposits to the extent of the $5,-000 and the $896.29 were not part of the bankrupt estate and denied relief as to these amounts. He ordered the bank to pay over the rest of the money demanded. The bank has brought the case here on petition to review.

No authorities governing the precise point have been called to my attention. On principle I am convinced that the referee should have dismissed the entire proceeding for lack of jurisdiction and that the order against the bank to turn over the sum of $.1,040.01 was erroneous.

Barring eases where the party proceeded against consents, the jurisdiction of the bankruptcy court to take summary action regarding the bankrupt estate rests on possession, actual or constructive, of the property involved. Taubel-Scott-Kitzmiller Co. v. Fox, 264 U. S. 426, 432, 44 S. Ct. 396, 68 L. Ed. 770. Cases of jurisdiction supported by actual possession are where the property is or was in the physical custody of an officer of the bankruptcy court. White v. Schloerb, 178 U. S. 542, 20 S. Ct. 1007, 44 L. Ed. 1183; Whitney v. Wenman, 198 U. S. 539, 25 S. Ct. 778, 49 L. Ed. 1157; Murphy v. Hofman Co., 211 U. S. 562, 29 S. Ct. 154, 53 L. Ed. 327. Then there were the cases of constructive possession, where the property at petition filed was in possession of the bankrupt, his agent, bailee, or other per son holding for him, or was in possession of one whose claim, though asserted as adverse, is found on inquiry to be no more than eolorably so. Mueller v. Nugent, 184 U. S. 1, 22 S. Ct. 269, 46 L. Ed. 405; Babbitt v. Dutcher, 216 U. S. 102, 30 S. Ct. 372, 54 L. Ed. 402, 17 Ann. Cas. 969; Hebert v. Crawford, 228 U. S. 204, 205, 33 S. Ct. 484, 57 L. Ed. 800; Board of Trade v. Johnson, 264 U. S. 1, 44 S. Ct. 232, 68 L. Ed. 533; May v. Henderson, 268 U. S. 111, 45 S. Ct. 456, 69 L. Ed. 870.

It is also the established rule that jurisdiction once attaching is not lost by the fact that later on possession of the property passes to strangers without order of the court and while the bankruptcy proceeding is still active. It is immaterial whether the change of possession has come about through , voluntary transfer by the bankrupt or his agents, seizure by officers of state courts, or unauthorized surrender by officers of the bankruptcy court; the jurisdiction continues and the court has summary power to order a return of the property. The filing of the bankruptcy petition has the effect of an attachment and injunction, and the property is in custodia legis. Whitney v. Wenman, supra; Acme Harvester Co. v. Beekman Lumber Co., 222 U. S. 300, 32 S. Ct. 96, 56 L. Ed. 208; Hebert v. Crawford, supra; May V. Henderson, supra. See, also, Lazarus v. Prentice, 234 U. S. 263, 266, 34 S. Ct. 851, 58 L. Ed. 1305; Gross v. Irving Trust Co., 289 U. S. 342, 344, 53 S. Ct. 605, 77 L. Ed. 1243. The jurisdiction does not de-; pend on title. Where property once in the custody of the bankruptcy court is removed, *894 return of the property may be summarily ordered without a trial of title; that issue may be tried later when and if the alleged owner seeks to reclaim. White v. Schloerb, supra; In re Rose Shoe Mfg. Co. (C. C. A.) 168 F. 39; In re Smith (D. C.) 18 F.(2d) 797; Gamble v. Daniel (C. C. A.) 39 F.(2d) 447, 454.

The trustee in this ease had the burden of proving the facts supporting the jurisdiction of the court [Buss v. Long Island Storage Warehouse Co. (C. C. A.) 64 F. (2d) 338, 340], and has failed to sustain the burden. Neither the receiver nor the trustee ever had possession of the funds in question. So the trustee must resort to the rule of constructive possession. But it failed to show that any of the funds which were in the bankrupt’s possession on May 16, just before deposit of them in the bank, had been in the bankrupt’s possession nine. days earlier at petition filed or represented the proceeds of any property in the bankrupt’s possession at petition filed.

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5 F. Supp. 892, 1933 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1107, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-retail-stores-delivery-corporation-nysd-1933.