§ 15 — Power of court

§ 15. Power of court. The court shall have power:\n 1. To allow claims, disallow claims, reconsider allowed or disallowed\nclaims, and allow or disallow them against the estate.\n 2. To authorize the business of assignor to be conducted for limited\nperiods by assignee, if necessary in the best interests of the estate,\nand allow additional compensation for such services.\n 3. To bring in and substitute additional persons or parties in the\nproceeding when necessary for the complete determination of a matter in\ncontroversy, by issuing a citation directed to such persons or parties\nand to be served as ordered by the court.\n 4. To reopen estates whenever it appears they were closed before being\nfully administered.\n 5. To determine all claims of assignors to their exemptions.\n 6. To authorize an assignee to bring an action or special proceeding,\nwhich he is hereby empowered to maintain, against any person who has\nreceived, taken or in any manner interfered with the estate, property or\neffects of the debtor in fraud of his creditors and which might have\nbeen avoided by a creditor of the assignor and the assignee may recover\nthe property so transferred or its value.\n 6-a. To authorize an assignee to bring an action, which he is hereby\nempowered to maintain, against any person, who with reasonable cause to\nbelieve the assignor was insolvent as defined in section thirteen of\nthis act, has within four months of the assignment received a voluntary\ntransfer from the assignor of money or property for or on account of an\nantecedent debt, the effect of which transfer is to enable the creditor\nto obtain a greater percentage of his debt than some other creditor of\nthe same class, and the assignee may recover the property so transferred\nor its value. For the purpose of this section a transfer shall be deemed\nto have been made when it is so far perfected that no creditor having a\njudgment on a simple contract without special priority (whether or not\nsuch a creditor exists) could have obtained an interest superior to that\nof the transferee therein. A transfer not so perfected prior to the\nassignment shall be deemed to have been made immediately before the\nassignment.\n 7. To direct upon the final settlement of the estate that the assignee\npay to the lawful creditors their proportionate dividend notwithstanding\ntheir claim has not been presented in accordance with the notice sent\nout by the assignee. If a final dividend is ordered and paid not less\nthan six months after notice to creditors to present their claims, the\nassignee shall have no liability to creditors whose claims have not been\npresented prior to entry of the order directing payment of the final\ndividend and which were unknown to him at that time. The court shall\nhave no power to allow claims not presented within one year from the\ndate of the recording of the assignment.\n 8. To allow secured creditors such sum only as to the court seems to\nbe owing over and above the value of their securities.\n 9. To examine the parties and witnesses on oath in relation to the\nassignment and accounting and all matters connected therewith and to\ncompel their attendance for that purpose and their answers to questions,\nand the production of books and papers;\n 10. To require the assignee to render and file an interim account of\nhis proceedings within six months of assuming his duties unless the\nestate is sooner distributed and to require the assignee to render and\nfile a final account of his proceedings, and to enforce the same in the\nmanner provided by law for compelling an executor or administrator to\ncomply with a surrogate's order for an account;\n 11. To take and state an interim and a final account as submitted by\nthe assignee, or, as to the final account, to appoint a referee to take\nand state it if demanded, within ten days after the date has been fixed\nfor the final hearing to consider the judicial settlement of the\naccount, by a creditor or creditors whose claim or claims represent\none-fourth or more in amount of all claims scheduled or filed. The\nreferee shall be an official referee if such a referee is available and\nshall have the powers enumerated in subdivision nine of this section;\n 12. To settle and adjudicate upon the account and the claims\npresented, and to decree payment of any creditor's just proportional\npart of the fund, or, in case of a partial accounting, so much thereof\nas the circumstances of the case render just and proper;\n 13. To discharge the assignee and his surety at any time, upon\nperformance of the decree, from all further liability upon matters\nincluded in the accounting, to creditors appearing and to creditors not\nhaving appeared after due citation, or not having presented their claims\nafter due advertisement;\n 14. On proof of a composition between the assignor and his creditors,\nto discharge the assignee and his sureties from all further liability to\nthe compounding creditors appearing or duly cited, and to authorize the\nassignee to release the assets to the assignor; provided, however, that\nif there be any creditors not assenting to the composition, the court\nshall determine what proportion of the fund shall be paid to or reserved\nfor creditors not assenting, which shall not be less than the sum or\nshare to which they would be entitled if no composition had been made,\nand may decree distribution accordingly;\n 15. To adjourn the proceedings from time to time, grant further orders\nif necessary, and amend the petition and proceedings thereon before\ndecree in furtherance of justice;\n 16. To punish as for a contempt any disobedience or violation of any\norder made or process issued in pursuance of this article, and to\nrestrain by arrest and imprisonment any party or witness when it shall\nsatisfactorily appear that such party or witness is about to leave the\njurisdiction of the court, and to take bail to secure the attendance of\nsuch party or witness, to be prosecuted under the order of the court in\ncase of forfeiture by and for the benefit of the party in whose interest\nsuch examination shall be ordered;\n 17. To exercise such other or further powers in respect to the\nproceedings and the accounting therein as a surrogate may by law\nexercise in reference to an accounting by an executor or administrator.\n