Seligman v. Saussy
Seligman v. Saussy
Opinion of the Court
A bill was filed in the superior court of Chatham county by Moses Ecrst and others, as creditors of Samuel Kaufman, Henry Mayer and Chai les H. Kaufman, against George You Seybold and others. The bill was what is generally known as a creditors’ bill, and was filed on the 12th day of October, 1874. No subpoena and no relief were prayed
On the 5th day of April, 1875, Joseph Seligman, Lawrence Wells, and Edward Morgan, trustees in bankruptcy of the said bankrupts, having, on the 15th day of February, 1875, obtained an injunction from the district court of the United States for the southern district of Georgia, restraining the complainants in said bill from proceeding therein, filed a petition to obtain possession of the assets of said bankrupts, which petition was finally granted by the said superior court at the November term, 1876, the order therefor having been dictated by this court, which provided that the necessary costs and expenses for securing and collecting said fund, should be first paid before the said fund should be turned over. Before the said fund was finally ordered to be paid to said trustees, petitions were filed by various parties to have paid to them sundry sums of money, for various services alleged to have been rendered by them in said cause ; and the nature of said services were alleged to be as follows:
J. R. Saussy claimed compensation for his services as solicitor for the complainants in the bill.
ITowell & Denmark claimed as assistant counsel for the complainants ; and also by virtue of an alleged lien as counsel for attaching creditors, upon a part of the fund in the custody of said court.
George Von Seybold claimed as receiver in said cause,
O. I). O. Rliind, as master in said cause.
Charles S. Hardee claimed a sum for costs due him, and due the late clerk, George P. Harrison, and the sheriff, John T. Ronan.
Philip M. Russell claimed for costs due upon attachment cases against said bankrupts in the city court of Savannah.
Sigmund Elsinger and Julius Kaufman jointly claimed for magistrate court costs against said bankrupts.
Rufus E. Lester and George A. Mercer separately claimed for counsel fees on sums, a part of said fund, alleged to have been attached by their clients.
No attachment upon which costs or fees were claimed, originated over one month before said bankruptey, and none were due upon, any attachment carried to judgment.
To these claims the said trustees in bankruptcy, and the said bankrupts, and Easterling & Hubbell, creditors defendant to said bill, filed various objections, which were in substance as follows — •
To all of the claims they objected :
1. That by the bankrupt laws of the United States the trustees were entitled to have the fund in its integrity, and without any diminution by payment to the claimants.
2. That the state court had no such jurisdiction of the said fund as would authorize it to grant ¡Daymen t to the claimants.
3. That the claimants severally had performed no services for which they were entitled to the amounts they claimed, or any part of them.
4. That the claimants were not entitled to be paid anything in a court of equity, until a final decree should be had in that court in favor of the complainants against the defendants.
In addition to these general objections, they specially objected as to the claims of all parties except the receiver, master, sheriff and clerk, that their services were not such as entitled them in equity to receive payment out of said fund;
The court overruled these objections of the said objectors, and ordered that the receiver should pay to
J. R. Saussy............................................$ 2,000.00
Howell &Denmark.................................... j 1,000.00 ( S60.00
Rufus E. Lester......................................'... 256.55
Hartridge & Chisholm, and William U. Garrard............ 2,500.00
C. D. O. Rbind.......................................... 200.00
Charles S. Hardee, 1 GeorgeP. Harrison, f-............................'........ 677.35 John T. Ronan )
Phillip M. Russell..................................... 127.50
George Von Seybold, 5 per cent, uponfund, say..........( 2,500.00 ¡ 1,146.63
Elsinger & Kaufman...................................... 64.15
George A. Mercer....................................... 151.99
$11,184.17
The assets reported to the court by the receiver were some fifty thousand dollars.
To this decree in favor of said complainants the said trustees filed a bill of exceptions, alleging that the court erred upon the grounds named in their objections; the said Easterling & Hubbell, and the said Kaufmans and Mayer filed a bill of exceptions, similar in all respects, and the cause was sent to this court upon one record for both bills, under an agreement to that effect between plaintiffs and defendants in error.
Let the judgment of the court below be reversed.
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting.
I dissent from the judgment rendered by this court reversing the superior court of the eastern circuit, first, because it reaffirms the judgment rendered in this case when here before (51 Ga., 561), by which reaffirmance I understand this court to mean, that if the case were again before us de novo, the same judgment ought to be rendered. I hesitated long and doubted much about the correctness of sending this fund, secured by Georgia courts and held in her chancery, to New York, to be distributed by the bankrupt court there; and if I had it to do over again, I should dissent from the judgment which transmitted any of the fund to the courts of another jurisdiction for distribution. The Georgia court of chancery could have as well distributed it as any other court, and the trustees in bankruptcy, under its decree, could have received that to which they would have been entitled under the bankrupt laws of the- United States,
Secondly. I dissent because I think that the counsel fees in the attachment cases should be paid. Those attachments secured these funds, or large portions of them, by garnishments duly served before the bill in equity was filed or framed. But for the process of attachment, the trustees in bankruptcy, and all the creditors of the bankrupt, might have lost, and probably would have lost, if not all, at least much of the fund secured; and the judgment of this court, when the case was first here, required all such costs and charges to be paid before the Georgia chancellor parted with the fund. That was the redeeming feature of the first judgment in the view I then took of the case, and I am unwilling now to forego a jot or tittle of these expenses of securing the fund. The attachments, as well as the bill, helped to save it.
Thirdly. I dissent because, in respect to many of the charges allowed by the superior court as chancellor, the proof embodied in the bill of exceptions is ample to sustain the judgment, and some of these are the largest and most important which were passed upon, and they arose out of the equity proceeding, and not the attachments. I refer particularly to the charges of the receiver and his counsel, and of the solicitor who drafted and managed the bill. There is no good reason why the judgment, in respect to-these claims, and others of like character, should not have been affirmed, if it were necessary to send other claims back for further proof.
Fourthly. I dissent because no point whatever is made in the bill of exceptions, that the amount allowed to any claimant is too large, but the question made, and the sole question made, when the exceptions are analyzed, is an attack on the former judgment of this court, in so far as it required any costs and fees to be paid before the fund left
Fifthly. I dissent because, whilst the judge of the superior court does certify to the bill of exceptions as true, he qualifies the certificate by referring, also, to the transcript of the record, as containing other and additional evidence, and on turning to the transcript I find no such evidence therein. It is the duty of the plaintiffs in error to bring before this court all the testimony had before the superior court, material to elucidate the exceptions, and to show by the judge’s certificate that all is brought up. This certificate leaves that matter in great doubt, and if the bill of exceptions ought not to be dismissed on the ground that all the evidence is not before us, the judgment, at least, ought not to be reversed for want of evidence, when the whole evidence necessary to elucidate the point argued now, has not been incorporated in the bill of excej>tions, and does not appear in the record in such manner as to be considered by this court. No motion for a new trial was made, and hence no evidence could be found in the transcript of the record, except the
Sixthly. Whilst the fees and costs — being about twenty-five per cent, upon the fund, which the court allowed — may seem large, yet, when it is remembered that the case was for years in court, the litigation tangled and heavy, the labor of the receiver and counsel, and their expenses, great, the fund in danger, and all secured by the vigilance of the creel itors who attached first, and then were parties to a bill in chancery, to avoid a multiplicity of suits and to save costs, the apparent extravagance of the allowance by the chancellor vanishes. Had all the evidence before him been before us— andtlie plaintiffs in error should have brought it here if they made any point thereon — all these matters of expense, it is presumed, would have appeared more fully here, as the presumption is that they appeared below, because no exception is taken to the amount allowed.
On the whole, in my judgment, no sufficient ground exists to send this case back, especially in its totality; the plaintiffs in error have brought it confusedly before this court, to say the least, and no judgment of a superior court should be reversed unless the error plainly appears.
Therefore I dissent from this reversal.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Seligman, trustees v. Saussy Easterling & Hubbell v. Saussy
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published