New York Security & Trust Co. v. Equitable Mortgage Co.

71 F. 556, 1896 U.S. App. LEXIS 2480
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Western Missouri
DecidedJanuary 27, 1896
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 71 F. 556 (New York Security & Trust Co. v. Equitable Mortgage Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Western Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
New York Security & Trust Co. v. Equitable Mortgage Co., 71 F. 556, 1896 U.S. App. LEXIS 2480 (circtwdmo 1896).

Opinion

PHILIPS, District Judge.

The complainant in the original hill in this case is a New York corporation, and the defendant therein is a Missouri corporation, located at Kansas City, in this district. The chief business of the latter company was to loan money upon real-estate security, issuing what are known as “debenture bonds,” secured by real-estate mortgages, which it negotiated, guarantying payment thereof. These loans were principally secured on lands in Missouri hnd adjoining Western states. While the company had an. office in the city of- New York, where its president and other of.ficers had a situs, its actual business, within the contemplation of its charter, was conducted here, through its agents and representatives. Yet, as is quite customary with such concerns, when its of[557]*557fleers and stockholders desire the aid of courts to meet the conditions of its impaired credit, and exposure of its assets to judgment and execu tion at suit of its creditors, it went around the court of the state granting its franchise, and where its corporate powers were mainly exerted, and brought about the appointment of receivers in the United States court at the city of New York. Thereupon, as usual, the circuit judge of this circuit was applied to for an ancillary receivership, with ready-made decree and named foreign receivers for its approval, whose acceptance by this court was based upon judicial comity, and coerced by courtesy. A decree was accordingly entered in this court, by the circuit judge, creating an ancillary receivership. The court that has had the labor, the vexation, and the responsibility of conducting and administering the affairs of this ('state in this locality, had no choice in the selection of the agents known as “the right arm of the court.” While this court is quite an indispensable adjunct in aiding the receivers in any suits or proceedings instituted by them here in the management of the trust properly, and making multiplied orders asked for by them, it is, according to their contention in the pending matter, wholly without jurisdiction to hear and determíne a demand against the insolvent (orporation by a citizen resident itere, growing out of transactions had Itere, with and through the agents of the corporation while it was a going concern.

The Kansas City Safe Deposit & Savings Bank is a Missouri corporation, which conducted its business at Kansas City, in this disiriet. Becoming insolvent, Howard M. Holden, of said city, was made assignee, under the statutes of the state, of said hank, whose affairs are being administered by him under the supervision of one of tht* state courts. He presents, by way of intervention, to this court, his petition, showing that, out of transactions had between said bank and the Equitable Mortgage Company at Kansas City, while they were going concerns, a large indebtedness arose in favor of the bank against the Equitable Mortgage Company, the amount of which is controverted by the receivers, and praying that the existence and amount of said claim be adjudicated by this court against the receivers. The receivers and the complainant in the foreclosure proceedings move to dismiss this petition, on the ground that the New York court has exclusive jurisdiction over the subjectmatier of this controversy. No contention is made here by the intervener but that, in the matter of adjusting the priorities among the creditors of the insolvent estate, and in determining the order, manner, and time of the distribution thereof, the court in which the receivership first attached should have exclusive jurisdiction. But it is insisted that the intervener should be permitted to litigate here the question of the existence and amount of the claim against the insolvent corporation.

The rule of procedure invoked by the complainant and the respondent receivers, which draws to the court initiating the receivership jurisdiction over claims against the estate, lias its foundation in the necessities of the situation growing out of ancillary [558]*558receiverships, extending, as they often do, through various districts. The confusion liable to result from conflicting rulings and the decisions of the different courts respecting liens, priorities, and preferences among creditors, and the parceling out among them in the order determined by each court, might lead to intolerable contradictions and injustice. To preserve the unity of the common fund, and to prevent inequalities in the manner, occasion, and time of distribution, there should be but one court of final arbitrament to decide and adjudicate, when and where all parties in interest could have their day in common in court. I think it is not too broad to say that, in every instance where this rule has been successfully invoked against the jurisdiction of the ancillary court, it will be found to be where the intervener sought to have his claim ordered paid by the ancillary court. I find no considerate case where, under circumstances like these at bar, the claimant ivas denied the right to have adjudicated, in the court of his jurisdiction, the question of the existence and extent of his claim against the estate. On the contrary, it is inferable, from utterances in the opinions delivered by judges, that the existence of the jurisdiction here contended for is assumed. Railway Co. v. Felton, 69 Fed. 283; Central Trust Co. v. East Tennessee, V. & G. Ry. Co., Id. 658-666; Clyde v. Railway Co., 65 Fed. 340. The hardship and inconvenience of compelling a creditor to go to New York to litigate his claim against the receivers, growing out of transactions had here with the citizen corporation of this state, is instinctively wrong and oppressive. In many instances, such a rule would, in practice, amount to a denial of justice. The expense and annoyance attending a litigation at a point remote from the locality where the cause of action arose would compel the abandonment of small claims, and encourage the practice of corporations like the respondent and foreign creditors to initiate the receivership at remote points from where the real business of the corporation was conducted. It is evident that Judge Caldwell had in mind the mitigation of this abuse in practice, when he made'the order appointing these receivers in this district. At the conclusion of the order, which was, in effect, but a transcript of the order of the New York court, he added the following paragraph:

“It is further ordered that said receivers designate, in due form, some person having an office in the place in which the office of the cleric of the circuit court of this district is located, on whom service of notices, writs, and other-process may be made, and that said receivers execute and file in said cleric’s office a notice, stating the name and residence of such agent, and that he is authorized, in behalf of the receivers, to receive and accept service of notices and writs and other process, as herein designated, and that service of notices and writs on said agent shall be equivalent to personal service on said receivers, whether said notices or writs are issued out of this or any state court.”

In conformity therewith, the receivers, in due form, designated, in writing, filed in the clerk’s office of this court, the clerk of this court such "person.” It was competent for the court, in appointing such receivers, to impose such conditions and obligations. Central Trust Co. v. Texas & St. L. Ry. Co., 22 Fed. 137; Trust Co. v. [559]*559Souther, 107 U. S. 591, 2 Sup. Ct. 295.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
71 F. 556, 1896 U.S. App. LEXIS 2480, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/new-york-security-trust-co-v-equitable-mortgage-co-circtwdmo-1896.