United States v. Kras

409 U.S. 434, 93 S. Ct. 631, 34 L. Ed. 2d 626, 1973 U.S. LEXIS 162

• Court: Supreme Court of the United States
• Decided: January 10, 1973
• Docket: 71-749
• Status: Published

Opinions

Mr. Justice Blackmun

delivered the opinion of the Court.

The Bankruptcy Act and one of this Court’s complementary Orders in Bankruptcy impose fees and make the payment of those fees a condition to a discharge in voluntary bankruptcy.

Appellee Kras, an indigent petitioner in bankruptcy, challenged the fees on Fifth Amendment grounds. Upon receiving notice of the constitutional issue in the District Court, the Government moved to intervene as of right under 28 U. S. C. § 2403 and Rule 24 (a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Leave to intervene was granted. The District Court held the fee provisions to be unconstitutional as applied to Kras. 331 F. Supp. 1207 (EDNY 1971). It reached this conclusion in the face of an earlier contrary holding by a unanimous First Circuit. In re Garland, 428 F. 2d 1185 (1970), cert. denied, 402 U. S. 966 (1971). Pursuant to 28 U. S. C. § 1252, the Government appealed. We noted probable jurisdiction. 405 U. S. 915 (1972).

I

Section 14 (b)(2) of the Bankruptcy Act, 11 U. S. C. §32 (b)(2), provides that, upon the expiration of the time fixed by the court for filing of objections, “the court shall discharge the bankrupt if no objection has been filed and if the filing fees required to be paid by this title have been paid in full.” Section 14 (c), 11 U. S. C. § 32 (c), similarly provides that the court “shall grant the discharge unless satisfied that the bankrupt . . . (8) has failed to pay the filing fees required to be paid by this title in full.” Section 59 (g), 11 U. S. C. § 95 (g), relates to the dismissal of a petition in bankruptcy and states that “in the case of a dismissal for failure to pay the costs,” notice to creditors shall not be required. Three separate sections of the Act thus contemplate the imposition of fees and condition a discharge upon payment of those fees.

Three charges are imposed: $37 for the referee's salary and expense fund, $10 for compensation of the trustee,¹ and $3 for the clerk’s services. §§40 (c)(1), 48(c), and 52(a), 11 U. S. C. §§68 (c)(1), 76(c), and 80 (a). These total $50.² The fees are payable upon the filing of the petition. Section 40 (c)(1), however, contains a proviso that in cases of voluntary bankruptcy, all the fees “may be paid in installments, if so authorized by General Order of the Supreme Court of the United States.”

The Court’s General Order in Bankruptcy No. 35 (4), as amended June 23, 1947, 331 U. S. 873, 876-877, 11 U. S. C. App., p. 2210, complements §40 (c)(1) and provides that, upon a proper showing by the bankrupt, the fees may be paid in installments within a six-month period, which may be extended not to exceed three months.³

II

Robert William Kras presented his voluntary petition in bankruptcy to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York on May 28, 1971. The petition was accompanied by Kras’ motion for leave to file and proceed in bankruptcy without payment of any of the filing fees as a condition precedent to discharge. The motion was supported by Kras’ affidavit containing the following allegations that have not been controverted by the Government:

1. Kras resides in a 2%-room apartment with his wife, two children, ages 5 years and 8 months, his mother, and his mother’s 6-year-old daughter. His younger child suffers from cystic fibrosis and is undergoing treatment in a medical center.

2. Kras has been unemployed since May 1969 except for odd jobs producing about $300 in 1969 and a like amount in 1970. His last steady job was as an insurance agent with Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. He was discharged by Metropolitan in 1969 when premiums he had collected were stolen from his home and he was unable to make up the amount to his employer. Metropolitan’s claim against him has increased to over $1,000 and is one of the debts listed in his bankruptcy petition. He has diligently sought steady employment in New York City, but, because of unfavorable references from Metropolitan, he has been unsuccessful. Mrs. Kras was employed until March 1970, when she was forced to stop because of pregnancy. All her attention now will be devoted to caring for the younger child who is coming out of the hospital soon.

3. The Kras household subsists entirely on $210 per month public assistance received for Kras’ own family and $156 per month public assistance received for his mother and her daughter. These benefits are all expended for rent and day-to-day necessities. The rent is $102 per month. Kras owns no automobile and no asset that is non-exempt under the bankruptcy law. He receives no unemployment or disability benefit. His sole assets are wearing apparel and $50 worth of essential household goods that are exempt under § 6 of the Act, 11 U. S. C. § 24, and under New York Civil Practice Laws and Rules § 5205 (1963). He has a couch of negligible value in storage on which a $6 payment is due monthly.

4. Because of his poverty, Kras is wholly unable to pay or promise to pay the bankruptcy fees, even in small installments. He has been unable to borrow money. The New York City Department of Social Services refuses to allot money for payment of the fees. He has no prospect of immediate employment.

5. Kras seeks a discharge in bankruptcy of $6,428.69 in total indebtedness in order to relieve himself and his family of the distress of financial insolvency and creditor harassment and in order to make á new start in life. It is especially important that he obtain a discharge of his debt to Metropolitan soon “because until that is cleared up Metropolitan will continue to falsely charge me with fraud and give me bad references which prevent my getting employment.”

The District Court’s opinion contains an order, 331 F. Supp., at 1215, granting Kras’ motion for leave to file his petition in bankruptcy without prepayment of fees. He was adjudged a bankrupt on September 13, 1971. Later, the referee, upon consent of the parties, entered an order allowing Kras to conduct all necessary proceedings in bankruptcy up to but not including discharge. The referee stayed the discharge pending disposition of this appeal.

HI

In the District Court Kras first presented a statutory argument — and, alternatively, one based in common law — that he was entitled to relief from payment of the bankruptcy charges because of the provisions of 28 U. S. C. § 1915 (a).⁴ This is the in forma pauperis statute that has its origin in the Act of July 20, 1892, c. 209, 27 Stat. 252. See also 28 U. S. C. §§ 832-836 (1940 ed.).

The District Court rejected the argument despite the seeming facial application of § 1915 (a) to a bankruptcy proceeding as well as to any other. It reached this result by noting that § 51 (2) of the Bankruptcy Act, as originally adopted in 1898, 30 Stat. 558, had provided for a waiver of fees upon the filing of an affidavit of inability to pay; that by the passage of the Referees’ Salary Bill in 1946, 60 Stat. 326, bankruptcy petitions in forma pauperis were abolished, H. R. Rep. No. 1037, 79th Cong., 1st Sess., 6 (1945); S. Rep. No. 959, 79th Cong., 2d Sess., 7 (1946); and that the 1946 statute, being later and having a positive and specific provision for postponement of fees in cases of indigency, overrode the earlier general provisions of § 1915 (a). 331 F. Supp., at 1209-1210. To the same effect are In re Garland, 428 F. 2d, at 1186-1187, and In re Smith, 323 F. Supp. 1082, 1084-1085 (Colo. 1971), the reasoning of which the District Court adopted. So also is In re Smith, 341 F. Supp. 1297, 1298 (ND Ill. 1972).

The appellee may well have abandoned the argument on this appeal. Tr. of Oral Arg. 44 — 45. In any event, we agree, for the reasons stated by the District Court and by the courts in Garland and in the two Smith cases, supra, that § 1915 (a) is not now available in bankruptcy. See 2 W. Collier, Bankruptcy ¶[ 51.01, pp. 1873-1874 (14th ed. 1971). Neither do we perceive any common-law right to proceed without payment of fees. Congress, of course, sometime might conclude that § 1915 (a) should be made applicable to bankruptcy and legislate accordingly.

The District Court went on to hold, however, 331 F. Supp., at 1210-1215, that the prescribed fees, payment of which was required as a condition precedent to discharge, served to deny Kras “his Fifth Amendment right of due process, including equal protection.” Id., at 1212. It held that a discharge in bankruptcy was a “fundamental interest” that could be denied only when a “compelling government interest” was demonstrated. It noted, id., at 1213, that provision should be made by the referee for the survival, beyond bankruptcy, of the bankrupt’s obligation to pay the fees. The court rested its decision primarily upon Boddie v. Connecticut, 401 U. S. 371 (1971), which came down after the First Circuit’s decision in Garland, supra. A number of other district courts and bankruptcy referees have reached the same result.⁵

Kras contends that his case falls squarely within Boddie. The Government, on the other hand, stresses the differences between divorce (with which Boddie was concerned) and bankruptcy, and claims that Boddie is not controlling and that the fee requirements constitute a reasonable exercise of Congress’ plenary power over bankruptcy.

IV

Boddie was a challenge by welfare recipients to certain Connecticut procedures, including the payment of court fees and costs, that allegedly restricted their access to the courts for divorce. The plaintiffs, simply by reason of their indigency, were unable to bring their actions. The Court reversed a district court judgment that a State could limit access to its courts by fees “which effectively bar persons on relief from commencing actions therein.” 286 F. Supp. 968, 972. Mr. Justice Harlan, writing for the Court, stressed state monopolization of the means for legally dissolving marriage and identified the would-be indigent divorce plaintiff with any other action’s impoverished defendant forced into court by the institution of a lawsuit against him. He declared that “a meaningful opportunity to be heard” was firmly imbedded in our due process jurisprudence, 401 U. S., at 377, and that this was to be protected against denial by laws that operate to jeopardize it for particular individuals, id., at 379-380. The Court then concluded that Connecticut’s refusal to admit these good-faith divorce plaintiffs to its courts equated with the denial of an opportunity to be heard and, in the absence of a sufficient countervailing justification for the State’s action, a denial of due process, id., at 380-381.

But the Court emphasized that “we go no further than necessary to dispose of the case before us.” Id., at 382.

“We do not decide that access for all individuals to the courts is a right that is, in all circumstances, guaranteed by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment so that its exercise may not be placed beyond the reach of any individual, for, as we have already noted, in the case before us this right is the exclusive precondition to the adjustment of a fundamental human relationship. The requirement that these appellants resort to the judicial process is entirely a state-created matter. Thus we hold only that a State may not, consistent with the obligations imposed on it by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, pre-empt the right to dissolve this legal relationship without affording all citizens access to the means it has prescribed for doing so.” Id., at 382-383.

Mr. Justice Douglas, concurring in the result, rested his conclusion on equal protection rather than due process. “I do not see the length of the road we must follow if we accept my Brother Harlan’s invitation.” Id., at 383, 385. Mr. Justice Brennan concurred in part, for he discerned no distinction between divorce and “any other right arising under federal or state law” and he, also, found a denial of equal protection. Id., at 386, 387. Mr. Justice Black dissented, id., at 389, feeling that the Connecticut court costs were barred by neither the Due Process Clause nor the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Just two months after Boddie was decided, the Court denied certiorari in Garland. 402 U. S. 966. Mr. Jus-tioe Brennan was of the opinion that certiorari should have been granted. Mr. Justice Blacky in an opinion applicable to Garland and to seven other then-pending cases, 402 U. S. 954, dissented and would have heard argument in all eight cases “or reverse them outright on the basis of the decision in Boddie.” Id., at 955. For him “the need ... to file for a discharge in bankruptcy seem[ed] . . . more 'fundamental’ than a person’s right to seek a divorce.” Id., at 958. And Mr. Justice Douglas similarly dissented from the denial of certiorari in Garland and in four other cases because “obtaining a fresh start in life through bankruptcy proceedings . . . seemingly come[s] within the Equal Protection Clause.” 402 U. S. 960, 961.

Thus, although a denial of certiorari normally carries no implication or inference, Chessman v. Teets, 354 U. S. 156, 164 n. 13 (1957); Brown v. Allen, 344 U. S. 443 (1953), the pointed dissents of Mr. Justice Black and Mr. Justice Douglas to the denial in Garland so soon after Boddie, and Mr. Justice Harlan’s failure to join the dissenters, surely are not without some significance as to their and the Court’s attitude about the application of the Boddie principle to bankruptcy fees.

Y

We agree with the Government that our decision in Boddie does not control the disposition of this case and that the District Court’s reliance upon Boddie is misplaced.

A. Boddie was based on the notion that a State cannot deny access, simply because of one’s poverty, to a “judicial proceeding [that is] the only effective means of resolving the dispute at hand.” 401 U. S., at 376. Throughout the opinion there is constant and recurring reference to Connecticut’s exclusive control over the establishment, enforcement, and dissolution of the marital relationship. The Court emphasized that “marriage involves interests of basic importance in our society,” ibid., and spoke of “state monopolization of the means for legally dissolving this relationship,” id., at 374. “[R]esbrt to the state courts [was] the only avenue to dissolution of . . . marriages,” id., at 376, which was “not only the paramount dispute-settlement technique, but, in fact, the only available one,” id., at 377. The Court acknowledged that it knew “of no instance where two consenting adults may divorce and mutually liberate themselves from the constraints of legal obligations that go with marriage, and more fundamentally the prohibition against remarriage, without invoking the State's judicial machinery,” id., at 376. In the light of all this, we concluded that resort to the judicial process was “no more voluntary in a realistic sense than that of the defendant called upon to defend his interests in court” and we resolved the case “in light of the principles enunciated in our due process decisions that delimit rights of defendants compelled to litigate their differences in the judicial forum,” id., at 376-377.

B. The appellants in Boddie, on the one hand, and Robert Kras, on the other, stand in materially different postures. The denial of access to the judicial forum in Boddie touched directly, as has been noted, on the marital relationship and on the associational interests that surround the establishment and dissolution of that relationship. On many occasions we have recognized the fundamental importance of these interests under our Constitution. See, for example, Loving v. Virginia, 388 U. S. 1 (1967); Skinner v. Oklahoma, 316 U. S. 535 (1942); Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U. S. 479 (1965); Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U. S. 438 (1972); Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U. S. 390 (1923). The Boddie appellants’ inability to dissolve their marriages seriously impaired their freedom to pursue other protected associa-. tional activities. Kras’ alleged interest in the elimination of his debt burden, and in obtaining his desired new start in life, although important and so recognized by the enactment of the Bankruptcy Act, does not rise to the same constitutional level. See Dandridge v. Williams, 397 U. S. 471 (1970); Richardson v. Belcher, 404 U. S. 78 (1971). If Kras is not discharged in bankruptcy, his position will not be materially altered in any constitutional sense. Gaining or not gaining a discharge will effect no change with respect to basic necessities.⁶ We see no fundamental interest that is gained or lost depending on the availability of a discharge in bankruptcy.

C. Nor is the Government’s control over the establishment, enforcement, or dissolution of debts nearly so exclusive as Connecticut’s control over the marriage relationship in Boddie. In contrast with divorce, bankruptcy is not the only method available to a debtor for the adjustment of his legal relationship with his creditors. The utter exclusiveness of court access and court remedy, as has been noted, was a potent factor in Boddie. But "[wjithout a prior judicial imprimatur, individuals may freely enter into and rescind commercial contracts . . . .” 401 U. S., at 376.

However unrealistic the remedy may be in a particular situation, a debtor, in theory, and often in actuality, may adjust his debts by negotiated agreement with his creditors. At times the happy passage of the applicable limitation period, or other acceptable creditor arrangement, will provide the answer. Government’s role with respect to the private commercial relationship is qualitatively and quantitatively different from its role in the establishment, enforcement, and dissolution of marriage.

Resort to the court, therefore, is not Kras’ sole path to relief. Boddie’s emphasis on exclusivity finds no counterpart in the bankrupt’s situation. See Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp., 337 U. S. 541, 547-555 (1949).

D. We are also of the opinion that the filing fee requirement does not deny Kras the equal protection of the laws. Bankruptcy is hardly akin to free speech or marriage or to those, other rights, so many of which are imbedded in the First Amendment, that the Court has come to regard as fundamental and that demand the lofty requirement of a compelling governmental interest before they may be significantly regulated. See Shapiro v. Thompson, 394 U. S. 618, 638 (1969). Neither does it touch upon what have been said to be the suspect criteria of race, nationality, or alienage. Graham v. Richardson, 403 U. S. 365, 375 (1971). Instead, bankruptcy legislation is in the area of economics and social welfare. See Dandridge v. Williams, 397 U. S., at 484-485; Richardson v. Belcher, 404 U. S., at 81; Lindsey v. Normet, 405 U. S. 56, 74 (1972); Jefferson v. Hackney, 406 U. S. 535, 546 (1972). This being so, the applicable standard, in measuring the propriety of Congress’ classification, is that of rational justification. Flemming v. Nestor, 363 U. S. 603, 611-612 (1960); Dandridge v. Williams, 397 U. S., at 485-486; Richardson v. Belcher, 404 U. S., at 81.

E. There is no constitutional right to obtain a discharge of one’s debts in bankruptcy. The Constitution, Art. I, § 8, cl. 4, merely authorizes the Congress to “establish . . . uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States.” Although the first bankruptcy law in England was enacted in 1542, 34 & 35 Hen. 8, c. 4, and a discharge provision first appeared in 1705, 4 Anne, c. 17, primarily as a reward for cooperating debtors, J. MacLachlan, Bankruptcy 20-21 (1956), voluntary bankruptcy was not known in this country at the adoption of the Constitution. Indeed, for the entire period prior to the present Act of 1898, the Nation was without a federal bankruptcy law except for three short periods aggregating about 15% years. The first statute was the Act of April 4, 1800, c. 19, 2 Stat. 19, and it was repealed by the Act of December 19, 1803, c. 6, 2 Stat. 248. The second was the Act of August 19, 1841, c. 9, 5 Stat. 440, repealed less than two years later by the Act of March 3, 1843, c. 82, 5 Stat. 614. The third was the Act of March 2,1867, c. 176,14 Stat. 517; it was repealed by the Act of June 7, 1878, c. 160, 20 Stat. 99. Voluntary petitions were permitted under the 1841 and 1867 Acts. See 1 W. Collier, Bankruptcy ¶¶ 0.03-0.05, pp. 6-9 (14th ed. 1971). Professor MacLachlan has said that the development of the discharge “represents an independent . . . public policy in favor of extricating an insolvent debtor from what would otherwise be a financial impasse.” J. MacLachlan, Bankruptcy 88 (footnote omitted) . But this obviously is a legislatively created benefit, not a constitutional one, and, as noted, it was a benefit withheld, save for three short periods, during the first 110 years of the Nation’s life. The mere fact that Congress has delegated to the District Court supervision over the proceedings by which a petition for discharge is processed does not convert a statutory benefit into a constitutional right of access to a court. Then, too, Congress might have delegated the responsibility to an administrative agency.

F. The rational basis for the fee requirement is readily apparent. Congressional power over bankruptcy, of course, is plenary and exclusive. Kalb v. Feuerstein, 308 U. S. 433, 438-439 (1940). By the 1946 Amendment, 60 Stat. 326, Congress, as has been noted, abolished the theretofore existing practices of the pauper petition and of compensating the referee from the fees he collected. It replaced that system with one for salaried referees and for fixed fees for every petition filed and a specified percentage of distributable assets. It sought to make the system self-sustaining and paid for by those who use it rather than by tax revenues drawn from the public at large. H. R. Rep. No. 1037, 79th Cong., 1st Sess., 4-6 (1945); S. Rep. No. 959, 79th Cong., 2d Sess. 2, 5-6 (1946).⁷ The propriety of the requirement that the fees be paid ultimately has been recognized even by those district courts that have held the payment of the fee as a precondition to a discharge to be unconstitutional, for those courts would make the payments survive the bankruptcy as a continuing obligation of the bankrupt. In re Smith, 323 F. Supp., at 1093; In re Ottman, 336 F. Supp. 746, 748 (ED Wis. 1972). See O’Brien v. Trevethan, 336 F. Supp. 1029, 1034 (Conn. 1972).

Further, the reasonableness of the structure Congress produced, and congressional concern for the debtor, are apparent from the provisions permitting the debtor to file his petition without payment of any fee, with consequent freedom of subsequent earnings and of after-acquired assets (with the rare exception specified in § 70 (a) of the Act, 11 U. S. C. § 110 (a)) from the claims of then-existing obligations. These provisions, coupled with the bankrupt’s ability to obtain a stay of all debt enforcement actions pending at the filing of the petition or thereafter commenced, §§ 11 (a) and 2 (a) (15), 11 U. S. C. §§29 (a) and 11 (a) (15); 1A W. Collier, Bankruptcy ¶ 11.03 (14th ed. 1972); 1 id., ¶ 2.62 [4] (14th ed. 1971), enable a bankrupt to terminate his harassment by creditors, to protect his future earnings and property, and to have his new start with a minimum of effort and financial obligation. They serve also, as an incidental effect, to promote and not to defeat the purpose of making the bankruptcy system financially self-sufficient. Cf. Lindsey v. Normet, 405 U. S., at 74-79.

G. If the $50 filing fees are paid in installments over six months as General Order No. 35 (4) permits on a proper showing, the required average weekly payment is $1.92. If the payment period is extended for the additional three months as the Order permits, the average weekly payment is lowered to $1.28.⁸ This is a sum less than the payments Kras makes on his couch of negligible value in storage, and less than the price of a movie and little more than the cost of a pack or two of cigarettes. If, as Kras alleges in his affidavit, a discharge in bankruptcy will afford him that new start he so desires, and the Metropolitan then no longer will charge him with fraud and give him bad references,⁹ and if he really needs and desires that discharge, this much available revenue should be within his able-bodied reach when the adjudication in bankruptcy has stayed collection and has brought to a halt whatever harassment, if any, he may have sustained from creditors.

VI

Mr. Justice Harlan, in his opinion for the Court in Boddie, meticulously pointed out, as we have noted above, that the Court went “no further than necessary to dispose of the case before us” and did “not decide that access for all individuals to the courts is a right that is, in all circumstances, guaranteed by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment so that its exercise may not be placed beyond the reach of any individual.” 401 U. S., at 382-383. The Court obviously stopped short of an unlimited rule that an indigent at all times and in all cases has the right to relief without the payment of fees.

We decline to extend the principle of Boddie to the no-asset bankruptcy proceeding. That relief, if it is to be forthcoming, should originate with Congress. See Shaef-fer, Proceedings in Bankruptcy In Forma Pauperis, 69 Col. L. Rev. 1203 (1969).

Reversed.

1 Additional compensation to the trustee in an appropriate case is allowable under §48 (c), 11 U. S. C. §76 (c), but these provisions have no application for a no-asset or fully exempt estate.

2 General Order in Bankruptcy No. 16, 305 U. S. 687 (1939), 11 U. S. C. App., p. 2203, provides that a trustee need not be appointed in a no-asset case. When a trustee is not appointed, the aggregate fees are $40.

3 “(4) The petition in a voluntary proceeding under Chapters I to VII ... of the Act may be accepted for filing by the clerk if accompanied by a verified petition of the bankrupt . . . stating that the petitioner is without and cannot obtain the money with which to pay the filing fees in full at the time of filing. Such petition shall state the facts showing the necessity for the payment of the filing fees in installments and shall set forth the terms upon which the petitioner proposes to pay the filing fees.

“a. At the first meeting of creditors or any adjournment thereof, the court . . . shall enter an order fixing the amount and date of payment of such installments. The final installment shall be payable not more than six months after the date of filing of the original petition; provided, however, that for cause shown the court may extend the time of payment of any installment for a period not to exceed three months.

“b. Upon the failure of a bankrupt ... to pay any installment as ordered, the court may dismiss the proceeding for failure to pay costs as provided in Section 59, sub. g. of the Act. . . .

“c. No proceedings upon the discharge of a bankrupt . . . shall be instituted until the filing fees are paid in full.”

4 “Any court of the United States may authorize the commencement, prosecution or defense of any suit, action or proceeding, civil or criminal, or appeal therein, without prepayment of fees and costs or security therefor, by a person who makes affidavit that he is unable to pay such costs or give security therefor. Such affidavit shall state the nature of the action, defense or appeal and affiant’s belief that he is entitled to redress.”

5 In re Smith, 323 F. Supp. 1082 (Colo. 1971) (decided before Boddie); In re Naron, 334 F. Supp. 1150 (Ore. 1971); In re Ottman, 336 F. Supp. 746 (ED Wis. 1972); In re Smith, 341 F. Supp. 1297 (ND Ill. 1972); In re Haddock and Beeman, Nos. 14810 and 14811 (Conn. 1972); In re Passwater, Nos. IP70-B-3697 and IP70-B-3698 (SD Ind. 1971); In re Ripley, No. Bk 71-0-1003 (Neb. 1972); In re Read, No. Bk 71-826 (WDNY 1971). See O’Brien v. Trevethan, 336 F. Supp. 1029 (Conn. 1972). But see In re Partilla, No. 71-B-380 (SDNY 1971); In re Malevich, No. Bk 29-71 (NJ 1971).

6 See N. Y. Civ. Prac. Law § 5205 (1963); N. Y. Labor Law § 595 (1965); N. Y. Soc. Welfare Law § 137 (1966), and § 137-a (Supp. 1972-1973).

7 For the decade ended June 30, 1959, the Referee’s Salary and Expense Fund showed surpluses for the first five fiscal years and deficits for the last five. For fiscal 1969, 107,481 no-asset cases were terminated (as compared with 169,500 nonbusiness cases filed). Administrative Office of the United States Courts, Tables of Bankruptcy Statistics for Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1969, pp. 5, 10 (1971). This means, of course, that the fees were paid in those terminated no-asset cases. Undue hardship and denial of access to the courts are not apparent from this record of achievement.

8 If the fees total $40, as they may under General Order No. 15, 305 U. S. 687 (1939), 11 U. S. C. App., p. 2203, these average weekly figures are reduced to $1.54 and $1.03 respectively.

9 We fail to see how a discharge in bankruptcy in itself will prevent the Metropolitan from issuing an unfavorable reference letter about Kras.