Moore v. Scott

55 F.2d 863, 1932 U.S. App. LEXIS 3816
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit·Decided January 25, 1932·No. 6505·Published·Cited by 19 cases

Opinion

SAWTELLE, Circuit Judge.

Sitting in equity the United States District Court for the Southern District of California, on April 6, 1931, made an order allowing the final account of David B. Scott as receiver in equity of the assets of the Tungsten Products Company, and awarding compensation to the receiver and his eounsel, W. I. Titus. This appeal is brought by the trustee in bankruptcy, the bankruptcy having superseded the receivership by virtue of an adjudication dated November 21, 1930'.

By the terms of the order of adjudication, the District Court reserved the hearing and determination of the accounts of the equity receiver and tho fixing of allowances for services of such receiver and his counsel, in Equity No. C-55 in that court, wherein B. W. Holeman, receiver of the First National Bank of Bishop, California, is the plaintiff, and Tungsten Products Company, the defendant, the matters thus reserved to he heard and determined “before and by the court [equity] only.”

On November 22,1927, Equity Action No. C-55 was commenced in the same District Court, in which action Holeman was plaintiff and the bankrupt corporation was defendant. On November 25, 1927, David B. Scott, the appellee herein, was appointed and qualified as receiver in equity of the property of the defendant corporation, and he administered it until the date of the adjudication, November 21, 1930, an involuntary petition having been filed in the meantime in that court on March 19, 1928.

On December 3, 1930, the equity receiver filed in the equity suit his final account and application for compensation for himself and his eounsel. To this account, on December 33, 1930', the trustee in bankruptcy, the appellant herein, filed in the bankruptcy matter a number of exceptions, and on January 22, 1933, filed some additional exceptions.

On February 2, 1931, an order was made by the judge of the District Court for the Southern District of California, in case No. C-55-J-Eq., entitled “B. W. Iloleman, Receiver, Plaintiff, v. Tungsten Products Company, Defendant,” consolidating the equity ease and the bankruptcy ease “for the purpose of considering exceptions to Report of Receiver.”

On April 1,1931, the same Judge entered a memorandum of conclusions on .settlement *864 of final accounts of receiver, in Equity Suits No.' C-55-Eq., styled “B. W. Holeman, Receiver, Plaintiff, v. Tungsten Products Company, Defendant,” and No. C-56-Eq., entitled “B. W. Holeman, Receiver, Plaintiff, v. Coso Hot Springs, Inc., Defendant.”

The order appealed from, set forth above, was entered five days later, the ease there bearing the number “C-55-M,” conforming to the designation used by the receiver in filing his final account.

The appellant contends that the equity court should not have acted at all, and should have relinquished the settlement of the reeeiver’s account and the award of compensation to the bankruptcy court. In our view of the ease, consideration of the other assignments of error is unnecessary.

The Supreme Court has repeatedly emphasized the exclusive nature of the bankruptcy court’s jurisdiction.

In Mueller v. Nugent, 184 U. S. 1,14, 22 S. Ct. 269, 275, 46 L. Ed. 405, Mr. Chief Justiee Puller used the following oft-quoted language: “It is as true of the present law as it was of that of 1867, that the filing of the petition [in bankruptcy] is a caveat to-ail the world, and in effect an attachment and injunction (International Bank v. Sherman, 101 U. S. 407, 25 L. Ed. 867), and on adjudieation title to the bankrupt’s property became vested in the trustee (sections 70, 21e [11 USCA §§ 44, 110]) with actual or construetive possession, and placed in the custody of the bankruptcy court.”

The same jurist, in Re Watts & Sachs, 190 U. S. 1, 27, 23 S. Ct. 718, 724, 47 L. Ed. 933, said: “The bankruptcy law is paramount, and the jurisdiction of the Federal courts in bankruptcy, when properly invoked, in the administration of the affairs of insolvent persons and corporations, is essentially exclusive'. Necessarily, when like proceedings in the state courts are determined by the commencement of proceedings in bankruptcy, care has to be taken to avoid collision in respect of property in possession of the state courts. Sueh eases are not cases of adverse possession, or of possession in enforcement of preexisting liens, or in aid of the bankruptcy proceedings. The general rule as between courts of concurrent jurisdiction is that property already in possession of the receiver of one court cannot rightfully be taken from him without the court’s consent, by the receiver of another court appointed in a subsequent suit; but that rule can have only a qualified application where winding-up proceedings are superseded by those in bank-ruptcy as to which the jurisdiction is not con current(Italics our own.)

Again, in the same opinion, the Chief Justice says “that the intent of the bankruptcy law is to place the administration of affairs of insolvents exclusively under the jurisdiction of the bankruptcy courts.” See also May v. Henderson, 268 U. S. 111, 117, 45 S. Ct. 456, 69 L. Ed. 870, and Straton v. New, 283 U. S. 318, 331, 51 S. Ct. 465, 75 L. Ed. 1060.

Should there remain any doubt as to 'whether the Supreme Court intended that this doctrine should apply to the fixing of the fees °£ a receiver named by another court, the statement by Mr. Justice Brandéis in Lion Bonding & Surety Co. v. Karatz, 262 U. S. 640, 642, 43 S. Ct. 641, 642, 67 L. Ed. 1151, removes that doubt, as much as may be done by human language: “Even where the court which appoints a receiver had jurisdiction at the time, but loses it, Os upon supervening bankruptcy, the first court cannot thereafter make an allowance for his expenses and compensation. He must apply to the bankruptcy court.” (Italics our own.)

Nor can the bankruptcy court itself surrender this exclusive jurisdiction: “Indeed, a court of bankruptcy itself is powerless to surrender its control of the administration of the estate.” Isaacs v. Hobbs Tie & T. Co., 282 U. S. 734, 739, 51 S. Ct. 270, 272, 75 L. Ed. 645.

The Isaacs Case involved two federal courts and a state court, and therefore may be said to indicate that the Supreme Court. makes no distinction between state and fed-eral eom'ts as to their inability to encroach upon the exclusive jurisdiction of the bankmptey courts. On page 739 of 282 U. S., 51 S. Ct. 270, 272, in the Isaacs Case, we find the following language used by Mr. Justice Roberts: “The state court in which the fore-closure action was begun was without jurisdiction to pursue it. Upon removal into the federal court upon the ground of diversity of citizenship, the latter court had no higher or different right i» interfere with the bankruptcy administration than had the state court-

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Moore v. Scott, 55 F.2d 863, 1932 U.S. App. LEXIS 3816 (9th Cir. 1932).

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