T. E. Hill Co. v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co.

265 Ill. 534
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 16, 1914
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 265 Ill. 534 (T. E. Hill Co. v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
T. E. Hill Co. v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co., 265 Ill. 534 (Ill. 1914).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Cooke

delivered the opinion of the court:

On September 21, 1905, the Contractors Supply and Equipment Company, W. J. Quan and the E. L. Hasler Company filed their" petition in the United States district court for the northern district of Illinois to have appellant, the T. E. Hill Company, adjudged a bankrupt. On the same day the Contractors Supply and Equipment Company, upon its application, secured the appointment of a receiver», who took possession of the property and assets of appellant. On February 10, 1906, the petition to have appellant adjudged a bankrupt was dismissed by the district court. On February 13 an appeal was prayed from the order dismissing the petition to the United States circuit court of appeals, which was allowed upon petitioners giving bond in the sum of $5000. On February 20 the appeal was perfected by the filing and approval of the bond, which was signed by the United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company, the appellee here, as surety. On February 13, the day the appeal was prayed and allowed from the order dismissing the petition, William A. Either was appointed the assignee of the appellant by the county court of Cook county under the Voluntary Assignment act. On the following day, February 14, Either, as such assignee, made application for a rule on the receiver to turn over to him the property of appellant. On February 23 the district court denied this application. The United States circuit court of appeals thereafter affirmed the order of the district court dismissing the petition to have appellant adjudged a bankrupt. Upon the appointment of the receiver and the seizure of the property of appellant on the application of the Contractors Supply and Equipment Company a bond was required of the applicant, under section 3s of the Federal Bankruptcy act, in the sum of $5000. Suit was thereafter brought on that bond by appellant and a recovery had for the full amount of the penalty. (Hill Co. v. United States Guaranty Co. 250 Ill. 242.) Appellant then brought this suit in the municipal court of the city of Chicago against appellee on the said appeal bond to recover damages sustained by reason of the seizure and detention of its property by the receiver. The trial court rendered judgment for $5000, the full amount of the penalty of the appeal bond. This judgment was reversed by the Appellate Court for the First District with a finding of facts, and judgment was entered in that court in favor of appellant for nominal damages in the sum of one cent. A certificate of importance was granted, and this appeal followed.

Appellant contends that the appeal bond was a supersedeas bond, which, under the order of the district court, prolonged the receivership, and that the receiver’s bond and appeal bond are cumulative, and that the appellee, as surety on the appeal bond, is liable to appellant for the damages sustained by reason of the continuance of the receivership during the pendency of the appeal. Appellee, on the other hand, contends that the three petitioning creditors, for the successful prosecution of whose appeal it became liable, are only liable for the costs of suit, etc., that were incurred in that appeal, and that as the receiver was appointed upon the application of the Contractors Supply and Equipment Company, alone, under section 35 of the Federal Bankruptcy act, any damages which may have been sustained by appellant by reason of the appointment -of the receiver and the seizure and detention of its property are recoverable only on the receiver’s bond, or from the applicant for the appointment of a receiver, the Contractors Supply and Equipment Company.

Section 59& of the Federal Bankruptcy act provides that three or more creditors, under the conditions therein named, may file a petition to have the debtor adjudged a bankrupt. The third clause of section 2, and section 3^ of that act, deal with the appointment of receivers. The third clause of said section 2 provides that the courts of bankruptcy are empowered to appoint receivers or the marshals, “upon application of parties in interest,” in case the court finds it necessary for the preservation of the estate, to take charge of the property of bankrupts after the filing of the petition and until it is dismissed or the trustee has qualified. Said section 3e is as follows:

“Sec. 35. Whenever a petition is filed by any person for the purpose of having another adjudged a bankrupt, and an application is made to take charge of and hold the property of the alleged bankrupt, or any part of the same, prior to the adjudication and pending a hearing on the petition, the petitioner or applicant shall file in the same court a bond, with at least two good and sufficient sureties, who shall reside within the jurisdiction of said court, to be approved by the court or a judge thereof, in such sum as the court shall direct, conditioned for the payment, in case such petition is dismissed, to the respondent, his or her personal representatives, all costs, expenses and damages occasioned by such seizure, taking and detention of the property of the alleged bankrupt. If such petition be dismissed by the court or withdrawn by the petitioner, the respondent or respondents shall be allowed all costs, counsel fees, expenses and damages occasioned by such seizure, taking or detention of such property. Counsel fees, costs, expenses and damages shall be fixed: and allowed by the court and paid by the obligors in such bond.”

It will be noted that the act does not limit the right to apply for the appointment of a receiver to any one or more of the petitioning creditors but provides that any party in interest may make application for such appointment. This would necessarily include any creditor who has a provable debt against the bankrupt that would be affected by his discharge in bankruptcy, whether he be one of the petitioning creditors or not. From a consideration of this provision in reference to the appointment of receivers, together with the other provisions of the Bankruptcy act, it is apparent that the petition for adjudication and the application for the appointment of a receiver are separate and distinct and that the receivership proceedings are but ancillary to the proceedings in bankruptcy. The Federal courts have so held. Section 69 of the Bankruptcy act is very similar to the said section 35, and provides that the judge may, upon satisfactory proof, by affidavit, that the bankrupt against whom an involuntary petition is pending has committed an act of bankruptcy and is neglecting his property, issue a warrant to the marshal to1 seize and hold the property subject to further orders, upon the application for such warrant and entering into such bond as the judge shall require. In the case of In re Kelly, 91 Fed. Rep. 504, it was held that the proceedings for such warrant and any execution thereof are separate and distinct from the petition in bankruptcy and must be prosecuted by a separate petition. In passing upon this question the court there said: “Under section 69 of the act the warrant of seizure can only issue after a petition by creditor has been filed, and possibly not until notice of it has been given, though we need not determine that point now, but the implication of the statute is that it is altogether a separate proceeding. The same implication appears from section 35 of the statute, which seemingly is quite identical with section 69 in respect of the matter of seizure of the alleged bankrupt’s property pendente lite. To avoid all confusion they ought to be separated in practice, whether it is required by the statute or not.

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Related

Stoll v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co.
10 Tenn. App. 539 (Court of Appeals of Tennessee, 1929)
In re Weissbord
241 F. 516 (D. New Jersey, 1917)

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Bluebook (online)
265 Ill. 534, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/t-e-hill-co-v-united-states-fidelity-guaranty-co-ill-1914.