Wuerpel v. Commercial Germania Trust & Savings Bank

238 F. 269, 151 C.C.A. 285, 1916 U.S. App. LEXIS 1338
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedDecember 15, 1916
DocketNo. 2903
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 238 F. 269 (Wuerpel v. Commercial Germania Trust & Savings Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wuerpel v. Commercial Germania Trust & Savings Bank, 238 F. 269, 151 C.C.A. 285, 1916 U.S. App. LEXIS 1338 (5th Cir. 1916).

Opinion

GRUBB, District Judge

(after stating the facts as above). The record presents three questions of practice and procedure, and one of substantive right.

[271]*271[1] 1. The case is brought to this court by appeal, and the appel-lee contends that the appeal was taken more than 10 days from the date of the judgment appealed from, and should be dismissed because taken too late. The appellee contends that the appeal must be taken under section 25a, contending that the judgment appealed from was one “allowing or rejecting a debt or claim of $500 or over.” The appellant contends that the appeal was allowed under section 24a, which invests Circuit Courts of Appeal “with appellate jurisdiction of controversies arising in bankruptcy proceedings from the courts of' bankruptcy from which they have appellate jurisdiction in other cases,” and that time for taking the appeal was 6 months.

In view of the fact that, prior to the time of the filing of the petition on which the order appealed from was made, the appellee’s claim had been allowed in full as an unsecured claim, and. that the trustee makes no complaint of its allowance in full as an unsecured claim, but has paid a dividend of 17 per cent, on it as such, we think it clear that the appeal by the trustee is not taken from a judgment allowing a claim under section 25a. The petition was filed with the-District Judge, and by him referred to a special master. Its prayer was .to be allowed full payment of its already allowed unsecured claim, as a prior claim, and this was the relief granted.

In the case of Hewit v. Berlin Machine Works, 194 U. S. 296-299, 24 Sup. Ct. 690, 691 (48 L. Ed. 986), the Supreme Court said:

“If tlie trustee liad carried the ease to the Circuit Court of Appeals on petition for supervision and revision under section 24b of tbe Bankruptcy Law, the case would have fallen within Holden v. Stratton, 191 U. S. 115 [24 Sup. Ct. 45, 48 L. Ed. 116], and the appeal to this court would have failed. But he took it there by appeal, though accompanied by some apparent effort to avail himself also of the other method. And as the Berlin Machine Works asserted title to the property in the possession of the trustee by an intervention raising a distinct and separable issue, the controversy may be treated as one of those ‘controversies arising in bankruptcy proceedings,’ over which the Circuit Court of Appeals could, under section 24a, exercise appellate jurisdiction as in other cases. Section 25a relates to appeals from judgments in certain enumerated steps in bankruptcy proceedings, in respect of which special provision therefor was required (Holden v. Stratton, supra) while section 24a relates to controversies arising in bankruptcy proceedings in the exercise by the bankruptcy courts of the jurisdiction, vested in them at law and in equity by section 2, to settle the estates of bankrupts and to determine controversies in relation thereto.”

Hewit v. Berlin Machine Works was a controversy relating to the ownership of certain machines claimed by both the trustee and vendor. In this case, the controversy is as to the ownership of a fund claimed by both the trustee and the appellee. It is entirely separate from the matter of the allowance of the claim, and so is not governed by Coder v. Arts, 213 U. S. 223, 29 Sup. Ct. 436, 53 L. Ed. 772, 16 Ann. Cas. 1008, and Matter of Loving, 224 U. S. 183, 32 Sup. Ct. 446, 56 L. Ed. 725. Nor was it partially connected with the allowance of a claim, presenting in addition the question of a right to a lien, dependent upon'a pure question of law, as in Huttig Sash & Door Co. v. Stitt, 218 Fed. 1, 133 C. C. A. 641. On the contrary, it is a proceeding entirely independent of any question as to the .allowance or rejection of a claim, but is a controversy arising in the bankruptcy [272]*272proceeding. The appeal was properly taken under section 24a, and the time for perfecting it was 6 months from the date of judgment.

[2] 2. The trustee asserts that the bankrupt court was without jurisdiction to hear the petition because he contends the fund being litigated about never reached the trustee, and could not be said to be in his possession, when the appellee’s petition was filed. ' However, if the ap-pellee is entitled to any relief, it is on the theory that the amount claimed in the petition did reach the trustee in some form. If the fund was in the possession of the trustee when the petition was filed, then the bankruptcy court had jurisdiction to determine all claims asserted against it. The face of the petition filed by appellee showed the controversy to have been one within the jurisdiction of the bankrupt court. It is not, therefore, a case where the claimant would be required to sue the trustee in a plenary suit in the state court under section 23a. A determination that the fund in controversy never reached the estate in bankruptcy in any form would necessitate a decision for the appellant on the merits, as well as upon the jurisdictional question.

[3] 3. The trustee also contends that the fact that appellee filed an unsecured claim for the amount here in controversy, which was allowed and on which it received a dividend, without asserting any right of priority, operates as an estoppel against its now asserting any such priority. The record does not show that the trustee was in any way induced to change his position by the act of appellee. It does not show that he has paid out funds for costs or dividends that he would have retained for the satisfaction of the app'ellee’s prior claim, had he been advised it was to be asserted. Nor does it appear that the trustee was injured by delay in asserting the alleged priority of appellee’s claim in the way of making his proof or otherwise. In the absence of such a showing, we do not think the estoppel can be sustained. Wallace v. Stone, 107 Mich. 190, 65 N. W. 113.

[4] 4. The last question is whether the record shows the appellee to be entitled to a priority in payment of its claim over unsecured creditors. The claimed right is predicated upon the theory that the bankrupts in receiving and using the draft, which it had in equity assigned for value to the appellee, became a trustee ex maleficio for the appel-lee, entitling it to follow the fund, as far as it was traceable, and recover it for the satisfaction of its claim. Two things are necessary to entitle appellee to the relief it asks. The draft must have been received and cashed by the bankrupts under circumstances which would make them trustees in invitum, and of this proposition there can be no doubt from the admitted facts contained in the record. The second requisite is that the estate in bankruptcy was augmented or benefited by the fund arising out of the collection of the draft by the bankrupts. The law is well settled that such augmentation of or advantage to the bankrupt estate must arise from the transaction; otherwise, the injured person fails to trace the fund into the assets of the insolvent or bankrupt estate, and, failing to do so, ranks only as an unsecured creditor, along with all others.

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Bluebook (online)
238 F. 269, 151 C.C.A. 285, 1916 U.S. App. LEXIS 1338, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wuerpel-v-commercial-germania-trust-savings-bank-ca5-1916.