Kearney v. National Brass & Copper Co.

59 Ohio Law. Abs. 577
Procedural entryThis page is a short order in Kearney v. National Brass & Copper Co.. Read the opinion of the Court — 93 F. Supp. 58
District Court, N.D. Ohio·Decided September 6, 1950·No. No. 65749·Published

Opinion

OPINION

By WOODS,

Referee in Bankruptcy.

Graham Kearney, trustee of Wright Industries, Inc., bankrupt, filed his petition to sell personal property of bankrupt and marshal liens, and thereupon an order to show cause was issued upon lien claimants to appear and set up whatever claims they had.

National Brass & Copper Co., Inc. answered by filing its “first response,” admitting all the allegations of fact in trustee’s petition, which alleged a loan of $50,000 to bankrupt in December of 1946, secured by chattel mortgage. Further an[579] swering in its “second response” said respondent asks affirmative relief, claiming a first and best lien on all items of personalty described in the three mortgages, in the' amount of $34,100, with interest, and that said chattels be sold and the proceeds first applied to its lien.

The Firestone Bank, Lisbon, Ohio, answered, stated it loaned $15,000 to bankrupt on September 6, 1946, taking its note for said amount, secured by chattel mortgage of bankrupt to G. L. Hephner as trustee for said bank, and recited that said Hephner, as such trustee, took chattels of bankrupt into his possession pursuant to another contract of the same date, claiming a first lien thereby in the amount of $8,259.41 with interest, and asking that in the event of sale free of said mortgage such lien be transferred to the fund.

The trustee in bankruptcy filed replies to said answers, denying the validity of any of the chattel mortgages to effect liens against the trustee, i. e. the three mortgages to the National Brass & Copper Co., Inc. and the one to Hephner, trustee for the Firestone Bank, are invalid, and that the attempt of Hephner, trustee, to seize and hold chattels of bankrupt, i. e. several hundred electric fans, was void and of no effect, and asks that Hephner be ordered to surrender said fans to the bankrupt estate.

The questions presented here involve the applicability and interpretation of Federal and State statutes, so that the language of the statutes becomes important.

Bankruptcy Act, Section 67, sub. d, 11 U. S. C. A. Section 107, sub. d reads as follows:

“(2) Every transfer made and every obligation incurred by a debtor within one year prior to the filing of a petition in bankruptcy * * * is fraudulent * * *.
“(d) as to then existing and future creditors, if made or incurred with actual intent, as distinguished from intent presumed in law, to hinder, delay or defraud either existing or future creditors. * * *
“(5) For the purposes of this subdivision d, a transfer shall be deemed to have been made at the time when it becomes so far perfected that no bona-fide purchaser from the debtor and no creditor could thereafter have acquired any rights in the property so transferred superior to the rights of the transferee therein, but, if such transfer is not' so perfected prior to the filing of a petition in bankruptcy * * *, it shall be deemed to have been made immediately before the filing of such petition.”

[580] Bankruptcy Act, Section 70, sub. e, 11 U. S. C. A. Section 110, sub. e.

“(1) A transfer made or suffered or obligation incurred by a debtor adjudged a bankrupt under this Act which, under any Federal or State law applicable thereto, is fraudulent as against or voidable for any other reason by any creditor of the debtor, having a claim provable under this Act, shall be null and void as against the trustee of such debtor.
“(2) All property of the debtor affected by any such transfer shall be and remain a part of his assets and estate, discharged and released from such transfer and shall pass to, and every such transfer or obligation shall be abided by the trustee for the benefit of the estate. The trustee shall reclaim and recover such property or collect its value from and avoid such transfer or obligation against whomever may hold or have received it, except a person as to whom the transfer or obligation specified in paragraph (1) of this subdivision e is valid under applicable Federal or State laws.”

Sec. 8618 GC. “Every gift, grant, or conveyance of lands, tenements, hereditaments, rents, goods or chattels, and every bond, judgment or execution, made or obtained with intent to defraud creditors of their just and lawful debts or damages * * * shall be utterly void and of no effect.”

Sec. 11104 GC. “A sale, conveyance, transfer, mortgage or assignment, made in trust or otherwise, by a debtor * * * in contemplation of insolvency and with a design to prefer one or more creditors to the exclusion in whole or in part of others, and a sale, conveyance, transfers mortgage or assignment made, or judgment procured * * * in any manner, with intent to hinder, delay or defraud creditors, shall be void as to creditors of such debtor, or debtors at the suit of any creditor or creditors. * * *”

Sec. 11105 GC. “The provisions of the next preceding section shall not apply unless the person or persons to whom such sale, conveyance transfer, mortgage or assignment is made, knew of such fraudulent intent on the part of such debtor or debtors, nor shall anything in such section contained vitiate or affect any mortgage made in good faith, to secure any debt or liability created simultaneously with such mortgage

Sec. 8560 GC. “A mortgage, or conveyance intended to operate as' a mortgage, of goods and chattels, which is not accompanied by an immediate delivery, and followed by an actual and continued change of possession of the things [581] mortgaged, shall be absolutely void as against the creditors of the mortgagor * * * unless the mortgage, or a true copy thereof, be forthwith deposited as directed in the next succeeding section.”

The mortgage of bankrupt to Hephner, trustee, of December 2, 1946, filed February 18, 1947, described the property sought to be covered thereby as follows: “All of the inventory consisting of supplies, raw materials, products in work or completed owned by Wright Industries, Inc., all machinery and equipment owned by Wright Industries, Inc., all replacements thereof and additions thereto hereafter delivered' by said Wright Industries, Inc. to said Trustee and thereby subjected to the lien hereof as fully and completely as if originally listed herein.”

The mortgage failed to recite the place of business of either the mortgagor or mortgagee, or the place where the mortgaged property was located.

This mortgage was cancelled when Wright Industries, Inc. executed and delivered to Hephner, trustee, the chattel mortgage dated December 2, 1947 (filed for record December 9, 1947, Ex. B), said substituted mortgage described the property sought to be covered exactly like the mortgage dated December 2, 1946 and also failed to recite the place of either the mortgagor or mortgagee, or the place where the mortgaged property was located.

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Kearney v. National Brass & Copper Co., 59 Ohio Law. Abs. 577 (N.D. Ohio 1950).

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