In re Rider

40 F. Supp. 882, 1941 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2797
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Iowa
DecidedSeptember 9, 1941
DocketNo. 192
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 40 F. Supp. 882 (In re Rider) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Rider, 40 F. Supp. 882, 1941 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2797 (S.D. Iowa 1941).

Opinion

DEWEY, District Judge.

This is a proceedings under Section 75 of the Bankruptcy Act, 11 U.S.C.A. § 203. Such proceedings were started by the filing of the debtor’s petition on the 18th day of March, 1939. An offer of composition was denied and the debtor on or about the 19th day of July, 1939, amended his petition and asked to be adjudged a bankrupt under the provisions of Section 75, sub. s and he was so adjudged a bankrupt on or about the 31st day of July, 1939.

Only two claims were filed in the proceedings; one by the United States of America on two promissory notes executed to the Governor of the Farm Credit Administration, one note dated Jan. 30, 1935, for $350, with 5%% interest per annum, and the other dated in March, 1935, for $337, with 5%% interest, per annum. The United States claims priority of payment under Title 11, Chapter 7, Section 104, and by virtue of Title 31, Chapter 6, § 191, of the U.S.C.A.

There was also filed the claim of the First-Trust Joint Stock Land Bank of Chicago, Ill., on a loan secured by the 202-acre tract described in the schedules for the sum of $19,112.20, as of May 1, 1939, and on a loan secured by the 118-acre tract described in the schedule of assets of the debtor in the sum of $15,435.60, as of May 1, 1939. The claim recites that proceedings for foreclosure of said mortgages have been instituted since May. 3, 1934, in the District Court of Adams County, Iowa, and that a receiver in this foreclosure proceedings had in his hands approximately the sum of $2,122.20 in cash.

After the adjudication in bankruptcy a stay order was entered by the conciliation commissioner and the rentals on the real estate, which were to be paid to the conciliation commissioner, were fixed and established.

Upon the application of the secured creditor Mr. Eugene W. Mullin was appointed receiver by the conciliation commissioner in this proceedings and he received from Mr. W. H. Miller, receiver in the State court, $1,387.68, representing net rentals which had been paid to the State receiver for rental of the premises from the date of the institution of the foreclosure proceedings to March 1, 1939, less payments for taxes made by him and perhaps other expenses.

The receiver in his . report to the conciliation commissioner, dated July 25, 1941, also shows receipts of $92.77 from the commissioner which he had collected; a receipt of $216.01 from the Soil Conservation Office, and other payments of $800 each from the bankrupt for the rentals of 1940. He shows disbursements, including a payment of the claim of the United States above referred to, filed by the Farm Credit Administration, in the sum of $647.75, and payment of the taxes and upkeep aggregating $1,785.72, leaving a balance to be distributed in the amount of $1,510.74. The total money received by the receiver as shown by his report is $3,296.46; total disbursements of $1,785.72; leaving the above balance to be distributed of $1,510.74.

The value of the real estate involved in these proceedings was fixed by order of the court in the sum of $15,000, and on April 15, 1941, the bankrupt tendered as a full payment of that sum to the conciliation commissioner $13,489.26 in cash and the sum of $1,510.74, being the balance for distribution above referred to and which the bankrupt claims, and the conciliation commissioner found, belongs to him when distribution was made. An order was made by the conciliation commissioner finding that these sums were a payment of the $15,000 appraised value of the.real estate and ordered and directed-that, the-real es[885]*885tate be turned over to the bankrupt free and clear of all liens and encumbrances.

During the course of these proceedings many hearings were had before the commissioner and from some of these orders petitions of review were had to this court and the same came on for hearing at Des Moines, Iowa, on the 4th day of September, 1941, where all petitions for review were argued and submitted.

The orders upon which reviews are asked are as follows:

Order of July 21, 1941, directing distribution of the rentals.

Order of July 29, 1941, approving the final report of the receiver.

Order of August 4, 1941, granting an extension of the period for redemption to Sept. 7, 1941.

Order of August 15, 1941, relieving the debtor from paying rentals.

Order of August 15, 1941, made on tender of the amount for redemption.

Many of the orders upon which reviews are asked were made by the commissioner under the belief and finding on his part that the secured creditor was not entitled to have distributed to it any of the funds in the hands of the receiver, whether received from rentals or otherwise, and that therefore after paying off the preferred claim of the United States Government the balance in the hands of the receiver belonged to the bankrupt.

This position of the commissioner was based, according to the arguments of counsel at this hearing, upon three propositions: first, that the money in the hands of the receiver belonged to the general assets of the estate, and as the secured creditor had not filed any general claim but only its secured claims that it would not have a right to participate in the distribution; second, that as the bankrupt had paid to the conciliation commissioner the full amount of the appraised value that this was a payment in full of all debts and charges owed by the bankrupt and a full settlement with the secured creditor and that therefore the latter had no claim for any further or additional amounts in these proceedings ; and, third, that when the appraisement is made of the real estate it fixes and establishes the value that a secured creditor has in and upon such real estate and that any payments that are made from the rents collected and paid to such secured creditor must be considered as payment on the principal of the indebtedness.

I am unable to agree with these contentions.

As to these latter contentions there has not as yet been a payment in full of the $15,000 to the conciliation commissioner, but even if there were such a payment it would not constitute a settlement in the sense that the secured creditor had agreed to accept the payment of the tendered amount in full of all claims and demands as of that date, but a termination of any further rights that the secured creditor might have in and to and against said real estate up to that time. Nor can I agree with counsel that these payments for rents, both to the state receiver and to the receiver in this proceeding, were payments on the principal referred to in Subsection, sub. s(3), as the quotation “less the amount paid on principal” undoubtedly refers to the additional amount which may have been required by the conciliation commissioner in addition to the rental to be paid on the principal as provided in Subsection, sub. s (2). Payments of annual rentals were not payments on principal but were to be applied on the indebtedness and might well have been applied on the interest instead of on the principal by the secured creditor as the annual interest indebtedness was greater than the amount of the rentals paid. See Sexton v. Dreyfus, 219 U.S. 339, 31 S.Ct. 256, 55 L.Ed. 244.

But we need to look no further than the Act itself to determine how distribution of these sums in the hands of the receiver should be made.

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Related

In re Schmidt
54 F. Supp. 262 (D. Nebraska, 1944)
Wilson v. Dewey
133 F.2d 962 (Eighth Circuit, 1943)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
40 F. Supp. 882, 1941 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2797, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-rider-iasd-1941.