In re Shears

31 F. Supp. 428, 1940 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3612
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Alabama
DecidedFebruary 13, 1940
DocketNo. 2347
StatusPublished

This text of 31 F. Supp. 428 (In re Shears) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Shears, 31 F. Supp. 428, 1940 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3612 (N.D. Ala. 1940).

Opinion

MURPHREE, District Judge.

Noah C. Shears was adjudicated a 'bankrupt on a voluntary petition filed by him on August 28, 1939. A trustee was duly appointed by the Referee. Shears scheduled personal property, consisting of wearing apparel, personal effects, household , furniture and the proceeds allegedly due him by policy of insurance with the All States -Life Insurance Company containing provisions for payment to a beneficiary at death and payment to the bankrupt “upon due proof that * * * the insured has be[429]*429come wholly disabled by bodily injuries or disease * * * for life from engaging in any occupation or employment for wage or profit * * * ”. The original certificate of insurance has been sent up for inspection by the Court on this review. It provides for payment for such permanent, total disability or for death. It does not provide for both. If the insured became disabled within the meaning of the policy prior to bankruptcy, liability of the insurance company became fixed and the proceeds due under the policy became assets of his estate upon bankruptcy, subject to the bankrupt’s exemptions being set apart to him. George Everett Legg, Petitioner, v. E. St. John,Trustee, 296 U.S. 489, 297 U.S. 695, 56 S.Ct. 336, 80 L.Ed. 345.

The bankrupt had commenced suit on the policy in the Circuit Court of Calhoun County, Alabama, in his own right prior to bankruptcy and had employed Mr. Charles F. Douglass as his attorney in such manner as to confer upon the attorney a lien under Section 6262 of the Code of Alabama equal to one-third of the recovery by suit without appeal to the Supreme Court. The bankrupt claimed the entire proceeds of the •policy as exempt to him, subject to the attorney’s lien.

The Referee authorized the trustee to intervene in said suit and to prosecute the same on behalf of the estate. He also denied the bankrupt’s claim of exemption as to the entire proceeds of the policy and overruled objections to the order authorizing the trustee to intervene in the state court, ■filed by Mr. Douglass based on his attorney’s lien. It appears that liability under the policy may be $2,000 with interest. The state law allows the bankrupt to select property to the value of $1,000 as exempt to him. There may be recovered for the estate some •amount over the exemptions to be allowed the bankrupt and the attorney’s fee due Mr. •Douglass.

The Referee was manifestly correct in his rulings. Subdivisions (7) and (11) of Section 2 of the Bankruptcy Act, 11 U.S.C. A. § 11(7, 11), disclose some of the chief functions and duties of the Bankruptcy Court:

“Sec. 2 J§ 11]. * * * (7) Cause the •estates of bankrupts to be collected, reduced to money and distributed, and determine controversies in relation thereto, except as herein otherwise provided, and determine .and liquidate all inchoate or vested interests of the bankrupt’s spouse in the property of any estate, whenever under the applicable laws of the State, creditors are empowered to compel such spouse to accept a money satisfaction for such interest."

“Sec. 2 [§ 11]. * * * (11) Determine all claims of bankrupts to their exemptions.”

“Under clause 11 of section 2 of the Bankruptcy Act, the court was vested with power to determine all claims of bankrupts to their exemptions. This power to determine the claim must include the power to ascertain certain facts by the bankruptcy court. * * * In a case like the present, it does not seem to me that the bankrupt, who brings the property within the jurisdiction of the bankruptcy court and demands to have a portion of it set apart to him as exempt, will be heard to say the court is without jurisdiction to determine one of the facts necessary to be ascertained, to wit, his ownership' of property sought to be exempted.

“The court having jurisdiction of the property for the purpose of segregating the exempt portion from that not exempt, claimants of the same adverse to the bankrupt must, it seems to me, come into the bankruptcy court to establish their claim, under the well-established rule that the court having jurisdiction over and custody of the res will hear and determine all rights to such res. And the jurisdiction of the bankruptcy courts is exclusive within the legal powers of said courts.” In re Marschall, D.C., 287 F. 187, 190.

The Bankruptcy Court, being a court of equity, often serves as a clearing house for the determination of conflicting rights, priorities and liens as between creditors, third parties and the bankrupt. Isaacs v. Hobbs Tie & Timber Co., 282 U. S. 734, 51 S.Ct. 270, 75 L.Ed. 645, 17 A.B. R. ,N.S., 273; Taylor v. Sternberg, 293 U. S. 470, 55 S.Ct. 260, 79 L.Ed. 599, 27 A.B. R.,N.S., 1.

“We think it is a necessary conclusion from these and other provisions of the act that the jurisdiction of the bankruptcy courts in all ‘proceedings in bankruptcy’ is intended to be exclusive of all other courts, and that such proceedings include, among others, all matters of administration, such as the allowance, rejection, and reconsideration of claims, the reduction of the estates to money, and its distribution, the determination of the preferences and priorities to be accorded to claims presented for allow[430]*430anee and payment in regular course, and the supervision and control of the trustees and others who are employed to assist them.” United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co. v. Bray, 225 U.S. 205, 32 S.Ct. 620, 625, 56 L.Ed. 1055.

The practice of permitting creditors possessing waivers of exemption to proceed in the State Court to enforce their rights in exempt property arose because exempt property, as such, usually does not come into possession of the trustee or under the administration of the bankruptcy court. But this principle applies only where the court has determined there is no equity in such property for the estate and all property is exempt to the bankrupt, or the court has set aside certain specific property as exempt. “When the value of exempt property is less than the statutory exemptions allowed, the law effectuates the claim. In Alley v. Daniel, 75 Ala. 403, it is declared, if he has not personal property, exceeding in value $1,000, a selection is unnecessary, the law, without the doing of any act on his part, intervenes and attaches the right of exemption as absolutely and unconditionally as if the particular property was specifically designated and declared exempt. L.R.A. 1915D, 393, note; Brinson v. Edwards, 94 Ala. 447, 454, 10 So. 219; Skinner v. Jennings, 137 Ala. 295, 34 So. 622.” Kibbe v. Scholes, 219 Ala. 571, 123 So. 61, 66.

“The fact that the act of 1898 confers upon the court of bankruptcy authority to control exempt property in order to set it aside, and thus exclude it from the assets of the bankrupt estate to be administered, affords no just ground for holding that the court of bankruptcy must administer and distribute, as included in the assets of the estate, the very property which the act, in unambiguous language, declares shall not pass from the bankrupt, or become part of the bankruptcy assets. The two provisions of the statute must be construed together, and both be given effect.

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Related

Thatcher v. Rockwell
105 U.S. 467 (Supreme Court, 1882)
Lockwood v. Exchange Bank
190 U.S. 294 (Supreme Court, 1903)
Johnson v. Collier
222 U.S. 538 (Supreme Court, 1912)
United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co. v. Bray
225 U.S. 205 (Supreme Court, 1912)
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad v. Hall
229 U.S. 511 (Supreme Court, 1913)
Isaacs v. Hobbs Tie & Timber Co.
282 U.S. 734 (Supreme Court, 1931)
Taylor v. Sternberg
293 U.S. 470 (Supreme Court, 1935)
Legg v. St. John
296 U.S. 489 (Supreme Court, 1936)
Roy v. Abraham
96 So. 883 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1923)
Eggleston v. Barnett
125 So. 637 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1930)
Coffman v. Folds
112 So. 911 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1927)
Kibbe v. Scholes
123 So. 61 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1929)
Alley v. Daniel
75 Ala. 403 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1883)
Brinson v. Edwards
94 Ala. 447 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1891)
Skinner v. Jennings
137 Ala. 295 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1902)
Johnson v. Collier
49 So. 761 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1909)
Legg v. St. John
297 U.S. 695 (Supreme Court, 1936)
In re Marschall
287 F. 187 (S.D. Florida, 1923)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
31 F. Supp. 428, 1940 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3612, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-shears-alnd-1940.