U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, 1918

Bonner v. First Nat. Bank of Athens

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit · Decided February 11, 1918 · Batts, Foster, Walker

248 F. 692; 160 C.C.A. 592; 1918 U.S. App. LEXIS 1468

Counsel

Francis Marion Etheridge, Joseph Manson McCormick, and Henri Louie Bromberg, all of Dallas, Tex., for plaintiff in error., H. B. Marsh and H. E. Lasseter, both of Tyler, Tex., and A. B. Watkins, of Athens, Tex. (R. W. Simpson, N. A. Gentry, and A. G. Mcllwaine, all of Tyler, Tex., on the brief), for defendant in error.

Cases that cite this one

6 later published cases cite this decision.

Barber v. Reina Nash Motor Company (Wyo. 1953)
Peter Schuttler Co. v. Gunther (Mich. 1923)
American Nat. Bank v. Harris (10th Cir. 1936)
In re Finley (District Court, M.D. North Carolina 1933)
In re Lindahl (District Court, S.D. Texas 1932)
Jones v. Bank of Excelsior Springs (Kan. Ct. App. 1919)

This list shows which later cases cite this one. It does not say how they treated it, and no review of that has been done. Not a substitute for Shepard’s or KeyCite — verify before relying.

Opinion of the Court

WALKER, Circuit Judge.

[1, 2] By the judgment presented for review the asserted right of a trustee in bankruptcy to recover property transferred by the bankrupt by a mortgage executed more than four months before the petition in bankruptcy was filed, but recorded within that time, was denied. The averments of the petition did not show that the mortgage was invalid under the law of Texas, in which state it was made. Under the law of that state it was not necessary to record the mortgage to make it valid against creditors other than lien creditors. Meyer Bros. Drug Co. v. Pipkin Drug Co., 136 Fed. 396, 69 C. C. A. 240. It has been settled by authoritative rulings that under section 47a of the Bankruptcy Act, as amended in 1910 (36 Stat. 838, 840), the trustee in bankruptcy takes the status of a lien creditor as of the time the petition in bankruptcy is filed, and that under section 60 of that act, as the same has been amended, such a mortgage as the one in question in this case does not constitute a voidable preference. Martin v. Commercial National Bank, 245 U. S. 513, 38 Sup. Ct. 176, 62 L. Ed. -, January 14, 1918; Carey v. Donohue, 240 U. S. 430; Martin v. Commercial National Bank, 228 Fed. 651, 143 C. C. A. 173. The mortgage was recorded before the right as a lien creditor of any one other than the mortgagee attached, and is not subordinated to the subsequently attaching right of the trustee.

The judgment under review is supported by the rulings mentioned. It is affirmed.

Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.