Lufkin v. Grand Hotel Co.

25 Haw. 150, 1919 Haw. LEXIS 31
Procedural entryThis page is a short order in Lufkin v. Grand Hotel Co.. Read the opinion of the Court — 24 Haw. 744
Hawaii Supreme Court·Decided October 4, 1919·No. No. 1127·Published

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT BY

KEMP, J.

This is an appeal from an order of the judge of the circuit court of the second judicial circuit denying leave to Ferdinand Schnack, trustee in bankruptcy of the estate of the Grand Hotel Company, Limited, a corporation, to intervene and defend in the suit of C. D. Lufkin, trustee for the First National Bank of Wailuku, and H. Streubeck, v. Grand Hotel Company, Limited, a corporation. On June á, 1917, the said C. D. Lufkin, as such trustee; filed his bill before the circuit judge of the second judicial circuit at chambers in equity against [151] the Grand Hotel Company, Limited, a corporation, to foreclose a mortgage given to him in his representative capacity by the said respondent Grand Hotel Company, Limited, on the 28th day of November previous. On the 6th day of June, 1917, the respondent filed its answer in which it confessed the truth of the allegations in the bill and joined in the prayer of the petitioner for the appointment of a receiver whereupon the circuit judge entered a decree pro confes so foreclosing said mortgage and ordered the property sold at public auction on July 11, 1917, to satisfy the indebtedness found due from the mortgagor to the mortgagee and appointing a receiver to take charge of and conduct said Grand Hotel business until such foreclosure sale is in all respects complete and the regular order confirming the same shall have been made.

It does not appear from the record, but it does appear from statements in appellant’s brief and concurred in by the appellee, that on July 13, 1917, a petition in involuntary bankruptcy was filed in the United States district court for the Territory of Hawaii praying that the respondent, the Grand Hotel Company, Limited, be adjudged a, bankrupt, and upon the same day the said court upon application of the petitioning creditors ordered further action in the foreclosure proceedings stayed until hearing and decision upon an order to show cause directed to the petitioner C. D. Lufkin ordering him to be and appear before the said court as directed in said order to show cause why said stay should not be continued. The hearing on the order to show cause Avas continued from time to time and finally submitted upon the evidence taken at the hearing of the petition for involuntary bankruptcy. It does appear from the record that on July 19, 1918, the Grand Hotel Company, Limited, Avas adjudged a bankrupt and on said date a [152] decree was entered in the bankruptcy court in said cause wherein it was “adjudged and decreed that the indenture of mortgage dated November 28, 1916, made and executed by the Grand Hotel Company, Limited, to C. D. Lufkin, as trustee, for the First National Bank of Wailuku and H. Streubeck * * * is a valid and subsisting mortgage and lien, and that the proceedings begun and had in the circuit court of the second judicial circuit of the Territory of Hawaii, at chambers, in equity, wherein the said C. D. Lufkin, as such trustee, is plaintiff and the Grand Hotel Company, Limited, the said mortgagor, is defendant, for the foreclosure of said mortgage, does not constitute and is not a preference in law, and that the said circuit court of the second judicial circuit of the Territory of Hawaii has due jurisdiction of such proceedings, and the amended motion to vacate and set aside the order of date July 13, 1917, staying the proceedings in such cause be and the same is hereby granted, and the said order of date July 13, 1917, staying the proceedings in that certain action pending in the circuit court of the second judicial circuit, Territory of Hawaii, at chambers, in equity, in which O. D. Lufkin, as trustee for the First National Bank of Wailuku and H. Streu-. beck is plaintiff, and the Grand Hotel Company, Limited, a corporation, is defendant, is hereby set aside, vacated and dismissed.”

A certified copy of the above decree was filed in this cause on July 23, 1918, and Avhile the same was not originally made a part of the record on appeal we have ordered the certified copy so filed in this cause sent up to become a part of the record on appeal.

On the 8th day of August, 1918, Ferdinand Schnack filed his motion in the said foreclosure proceeding for leave to intervene therein, from Avhich motion it appears that on the 19th day of July, 1918, the said Grand Hotel [153] Company, Limited, was adjudged a bankrupt and that at the first meeting of the creditors, which was held on the 3d day of August, 1918, he, the said Ferdinand Schnack, was appointed trustee of the estate of the said bankrupt and that he qualified as such on the 5th day of August, 1918. It further appears from said motion that on the 6th day of August the said trustee applied to the bankruptcy court for leave to apply to the circuit judge for permission to intervene and defend in the foreclosure suit aforesaid and that permission therefor was granted by said court. In said motion it was further alleged that on the 28th day of November, 1916, the First National Bank of Wailuku, Limited, and H. Streubeck each loaned and advanced to the Grand Hotel Company, Limited, the sum of $10,000, aggregating the sum of $20,000, and that the bankrupt as security therefor executed its notes and mortgage which were the subject of said foreclosure suit; that at said time, as the said bank and the said Streubeck well, knew prior to loaning and advancing said sums to said bankrupt, the bankrupt owed the aggregate sum of $25,720.29; that said additional indebtedness of $20,000 so secured was incurred without the consent of the existing creditors of the bankrupt or any of them and contrary to the provisions of section 3302 R. L. 1915, the capital' stock of the bankrupt being then the sum of $25,000; that the moneys so borrowed were used by the bankrupt for purposes other than discharging either in whole or in part the debts it then owed and the indebtedness of said bankrupt was thereby increased to $45,720.29.

The trustee also proffered with his motion a proposed answer containing in substance the same allegations, and praying “that the decree of foreclosure heretofore and on to-wit the 7th day of June, A. D. 1917, entered herein be vacated and set aside; that the petitioner take noth[154] ing by his said suit; aud that the bill of complaint herein be dismissed aud that this repliant have costs herein incurred.”

Upon a hearing of the motion by the circuit judge the same was denied for the reasons, as stated in his decree, (1) that the movant had no proper standing to file the proposed answer; (2) that inasmuch as the judgment had been rendered upon June 7, 1917, the said motion was not proper in that it came too- late, and (3) that the proposed answer did not set up facts sufficient to constitute a defense to the complaint on file in said suit.

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Lufkin v. Grand Hotel Co., 25 Haw. 150, 1919 Haw. LEXIS 31 (haw 1919).

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