Fifth Avenue Building & Loan Ass'n v. Goldberg
Fifth Avenue Building & Loan Ass'n v. Goldberg
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
On October 30,1900, a judgment in favor of plaintiff against the defendants was regularly entered in the court below. On November 24, 1900, a rule was granted to show cause why the judgment entered against Joseph Goldberg should not be opened and he let into a defense, which rule, after hearing,
The assignments of error may be considered together, the whole question being the sufficiency of the schedule, required by section 7 of the National Bankruptcy Act of 1898, to make the discharge in bankruptcy an effective release from the debts of Joseph Goldberg.
Section 17 provides, “ (a) A discharge in bankruptcy shall release a bankrupt from all of his provable debts, except such as (3) have not been duly scheduled in time for proof and allowance with the name of the creditor, if .known to the bankrupt, unless such creditor had notice or actual knowledge of the proceedings in bankruptcy; ” section 7 of the act requires that “ (a) The bankrupt shall .... (8) prepare, make oath to, and file in court within ten days, .... a schedule of his property, showing the amount and kind of property, the location thereof, its money value in detail, and a list of his creditors, showing their residences, if known, if unknown, that fact to be stated, the amounts due each of them, the consideration
The appellant concedes that the description in the schedule is, perhaps, not precise, in that it describes the security as the bond and mortgage of Mrs. Augusta Goldberg, and does not specifically state that Joseph Goldberg was a joint obligor with his wife. It is apparent that the designation of Augusta Goldberg, who was not a party to the bankruptcy proceeding, was not a compliance with the bankruptcy act, which required a debtor to give a particular schedule.
The purpose of inserting the names of creditors is to give to them and to the trustee full, accurate and early information as to the condition of the estate ; the provisions of subdivision 3 are new and form one of the most important changes made by the bankruptcy law of 1898 from former acts of congress. The preponderance of authority under the act of 1867 was that jurisdiction in bankruptcy proceedings, and also in the special proceeding to grant a discharge, did not depend on the correctness of the schedules, nor even on the giving of notice to the creditors, but on the petition and adjudication. Under that act a discharge, duly granted by a court having jurisdiction of the bankrupt, was a release of all provable debts (other than the excepted ones), whether or not they appeared on the schedules, and whether or not the creditors received personal notice of the proceedings in bankruptcy or of the application for a discharge. The rule was that in a case where the court had jurisdiction to grant a discharge which would be a release of omitted claims held by creditors who do not have personal notice of the proceedings in bankruptcy, applies equally under the present law, for though these creditors have not been served with notice, yet if they have actual knowledge of the proceedings, their claims are released by the discharge; but unless they do have actual notice or personal knowledge, then their claims, if omitted from the schedule are, by the present law, unaffected. • In this latter respect the act is diametrically opposed to the act of 1867 : Collier on Bankruptcy (3d ed.), pp. 197,198 ; Loveland on Bankruptcy, pp. 216, 225, 226. There is nothing in the offer to prove that this plain
The assignments of error are not sustained and the judgment is affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.