Gillespie v. J. C. Piles & Co.
Opinion of the Court
Louis R. Hough entered upon the business of buying and selling hogs at Des Moines, Iowa, in the spring of 1905, with a capital of $100 and a debt of $2,000, and continued in this business until on June 26, 1908, he had accumulated property worth $20,000 and debts exceeding $100,000, when he was adjudged a bank
A vendor, who sells personal property to an insolvent vendee, who at the time he buys does not intend to pay for it, may rescind the sale and recover- the property or its proceeds from any one but an innocent purchaser, and neither a receiver nor a trustee in bankruptcy is such a purchaser. A decisive question in the case therefore is: Did Hough intend not to pay for these hogs when he bought them? They were shipped to him at Des Moines from different stations in Iowa on the afternoon of June 25, 1908, without any agreement that specified the price at which Hough should buy and pay for them because the shippers knew that he was buying hogs and they wanted to send them to him that day. He was out of the city of Des Moines, and there was no one at his office who could specify a price. They were unloaded, watered, and fed at Hough’s yards in Des Moines by his employés during the night of June 25 and the morning of June 26, 1908, and they were accepted by Hough, and the price was fixed and entered upon his books, with
“We failed. The Century Havings Bank have refused to honor any more chocks signed hy you or I whatever.”
Hough arrived at Des Moines about 5 o’clock in the morning on June 26th, and met Lanterman before 6. Many of his creditors had called and demanded payment the day before. Lanterman told him this fact, and all the other facts which have been recited. He met the cashier of the bank about 9 :30; but be did not see him for the purpose of arranging to continue in his business, nor did he try to do so. He went to see him for the purpose of complying with the demand of the agent of A. G. Buchanan & Son, one of his creditors, from
From this brief review of the undisputed evidence it will be seen that this was the situation when the hogs of the interveners were bought. Lanterman knew on the evening of June 24th, the day before the interveners shipped their hogs to Hpugh, that the bank would honor no more checks of Hough or of himself, that it had appropriated Hough’s credit there to pay his note to the bank, and that Hough could not pay for any more hogs. Lanterman was the agent of Hough in charge of his business at Des Moines, and his knowledge was under the law the knowledge of Hough. On the morning of June 25th, before any of these hogs were shipped, Lanterman informed Hough of the material part of these facts, so that the latter had actual knowledge of them, and before the hogs were accepted by Hough, and before their purchase prices were fixed or specified, he had acceded to the demand of Buchanan & Son, and had learned all the facts that have been set forth in this opinion.
It is contended, and it is conceded, that the insolvency of a purchaser does not prove his intent not to pay for the goods which he buys. Many an insolvent obtains goods on credit with the honest intent to pay for them, and many times he succeeds in doing so. It is probable that Hough in this case bought and paid for hogs whose purchase price was more than $1,200,000 while he was insolvent, and he undoubtedly intended to pay for them when he bought them by buying and selling the hogs of other vendors and appropriating their proceeds to make the payments, in the hope that the market would changé and the losses he was constantly sustaining would change to profits. As long as vendors would sell to him and the bank would honor his drafts, such an intent was possible, and if, when the hogs of these interveners were shipped and were accepted, it had been possible for Hough to have continued to carry out his scheme, to have purchased of other vendors, to have drawn the proceeds of the sales of their hogs to the bank, and to have used them to pay earlier vendors, or even if he could have had a reasonable expectation that he could have continued to do these things, the finding of the referee that he had no intent not to pay for these hogs might have been sustained.
But he was not in the same financial or mental condition when he purchased of the interveners that he had occupied when he botight of earlier vendors. When he made the earlier purchases he had a reasonable expectation that he could pay for the hogs he purchased with the proceeds of hogs of later vendors in the way in which he had paid for other purchases for months. But when he bought of the interveners he knew that he had no money or credit with which to pay for their hogs, that the only way in- which he could pay for them was by the purchase and the sale of the hogs of subsequent vendors and the appropriation of the proceeds of these later purchases through the bank to the payment of the interveners,
The trustee objects to the consideration on the interveners’ petition for review of the legality of the order for the payment out of the proceeds of the hogs of the $300 to the attorney for the trustee, of the statutory percentages to the referee and the trustee, and of the freight charges for the transportation of the hogs, on the ground that 1 hese objections do not present questions of law, but require a review of the facts of this case. But none of the averments of the petition of the interveners was denied, the attorney for the trustee made a written stipulation that this case upon the petition for review should be consolidated with the case on the appeal of the trustee, which has been discussed, and that the parts of the record in the latter case that are material, relevant, and competent to the issues upon the petition for review might be used by reference thereto with the same effect as though they were part of the record herein. The evidence in tile case upon the appeal of the trustee has been reviewed, and the conclusion and order of the District Court that the interveners were entitled to the proceeds of the hogs because Hough obtained them by a fraudulent purchase has been affirmed.
In view of these facts, the determination of the questions presented by the petition for review involves the consideration of no issues of fact. It presents nothing but the pure questions of law whether or not a court of bankruptcy may lawfully pay out of the proceeds of property which the bankrupt has fraudulently obtained from a third party and delivered to a receiver or trustee the attorney’s fees incurred by the latter to keep these proceeds from their true owner and to realize upon the fraud, the commissions of the trustee and referee upon these proceeds that are allowed by the amended bankruptcy act upon
A court of equity, and a court of bankruptcy is a court of- equity, may lawfully pay out of a fund or property which the trustee of an estate recovers for or preserves to the estate by means of the services of attorneys reasonable compensation for those services; but the reason for such an allowance is that the equitable owners of the fund or property recovered or preserved derive a much larger benefit from the services of counsel than the compensation allowed, and a substantial benefit from such services to the real owners of the fund or property is the sine qua non of such an allowance or payment. Trustees v. Greenough, 105 U. S. 527, 532-7, 26 L. Ed. 1157. There is a manifest injustice and inequity in taking out of a fund or property in the custody of a court compensation for the services of an attorney or for the service of any other party by means of which the fund or property has been taken or kept from its true owner. The latter ought not to be required to pay for services which have been a positive detriment to him. And courts of equity may not lawfully take out of a fund or property in its custody and pay compensation for the services of an attorney of a trustee or for the services of any other party by means of which the fund or property has been taken or detained from its equitable owner. Hobbs v. McLean, 117 U. S. 567, 581, 6 Sup. Ct. 870, 29 L. Ed. 940.
. The hogs whose proceeds are in question were rightfully taken into his possession and immediately sold by the receiver under the order of the court, because they were in the possession of the bankrupt when he was appointed, and for the necessary expenses of yardage and feeding, the receiver or his successor, the trustee, was properly allowed compensation by the order of the court below. But when the inter-veners gave notice to the receiver or to the trustee that they elected to rescind the fraudulent sales, and demanded the proceeds of this property, the subsequent holding of the receiver and the trustee became wrongful, and the services of his attorneys in their endeavor to sustain the claim of the estate of the bankrupt to this property were injurious to its equitable owners, and compensation for them may not be lawfully paid out of these moneys. The services thus rendered were not services for the owners of these proceeds, but services against them. They were services for the estate in bankruptcy and for the creditors who will ultimately share in that estate, and that estate and those creditors alone are chargeable with liability for them. The order that $300 shall be paid to the attorneys for the receivers out of the moneys derived from the sale of the hogs was error, and it must be set aside.
The amended bankruptcy act provides that referees shall receive “from estates which have been administered before them one per centum commissions on all moneys disbursed to creditors by the trustee,” and that trustees shall receive “from estates which they have
Finally, no railroad company proved or presented any lien for any freight charge upon the hogs in question here or upon their proceeds. No railroad company was a party to this proceeding, and the order that the trustee pay out of the proceeds of the sales of these hogs “to the respective railroad companies transporting said nine (9) cars of hogs all unpaid freight thereon,” without naming the companies or specifying the amounts, was erroneous.
The order of the court below must be modified, by eliminating from it the directions to pay out of the property in controversy the §300 attorney’s fees, the percentages to the referee and trustee, and the unpaid freight, and in other respects it must be affirmed. The appellees may recover costs on the appeal, and the petitioners the costs on the petition for review.
Reference
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- GILLESPIE v. J. C. PILES & CO. In re PILES
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- (SyUadws hy the Court.) 1. Sales (§ 52*) — Fraud of Buyer — Insolvency—Impossibility or Payment. An insolvent buyer, who knows at the' time of his purchase that his financial condition is such that it is and will be impossible for him to pay, is conclusively presumed to have bought the goods with an intention not to pay for them. A presumption to that effect arises from the fact that such a purchaser’s affairs were in such a condition at the time of the purchase of the property that he could have had no reasonable expectation of paying for them. But insolvency is insufficient to establish such an intent. [Ed. Note. — For other cases, see Sales, Cent. Dig. § 123; Dec. Dig. § 52.* Misrepresentation and concealment by vendee of goods as to financial condition as affecting validity of contract of sale, see note to William Openhym & Sons v. Blake, 87 C. C. A. 126.] * 2. Bankruptcy (§§ 272, 482*) — Fees of Attorneys of Trustee Not Payable Out of Property of Adverse Claimant. A court of equity, and a court oí bankruptcy is a court of equity, may not take out of a fund or property in its custody and pay compensation for the services of an attorney or of any other party rendered to recover or retain the fund or property from its equitable owner. It is only when such services have had the effect to recover or preserve the property for its true owner that a court may pay compensation therefor out of the property. Services injurious to the rightful owner may not be thus compensated at his expense. [Ed. Note. — For other cases, see Bankruptcy, Dec. Dig. §§ 272, 482.*] 3. Bankruptcy (§§ 223, 36S*) — Percentages of Referee and Trustee Not Allowable Out of Property of Adverse Claimants. Property which comes to the possession of the trustee in bankruptcy through the fraud of the bankrupt and is adjudged to be returned to the victim of the fraud is not a part of the estate of the bankrupt, and the referee and trustee may not be allowed their statutory percentages out of it. [Ed. Note. — For other cases, see Bankruptcy, Dec. Dig. §§ 223, 308.*] 4. Bankruptcy (§§ 140,' 267, 223, 308*)— Fraudulent Salks — Allowances Out ok Property op Adverse Claimant — Compensation op Attorneys. An insolvent bought property at a time when he knew it was impossible for him to pay for it. He was adjudged bankrupt, and a receiver was appointed, who took the property and sold it as perishable under the order of the court. The vendors rescinded the sales to the insolvent and demanded the proceeds of the property. The trial court found that the sales were fraudulent, and ordered the trustee to pay out of the proceeds of the property $300 to his attorneys, the percentages of these proceeds allowed by the bankruptcy law to referees and trustees on estates administered in bankruptcy, and unpaid freight charges for the transportation of the property before the adjudication, and to return the balance of the proceeds to the vendors. Held: (1) The vendors were entitled to recover the proceeds of the property from the trustee in bankruptcy, because the insolvent did not intend to pay for the property when he bought it. (2) Neither the trustee nor his attorney had any legal or equitable claim for compensation out of these proceeds for services rendered to bring them 'into or to retain them in the estate of the bankrupt, because tlieir services were not beneficial, but were deleterious, to the equitable owners of the property and its proceeds. (3) Neither the referee nor the trustee had any legal or equitable claim to payment out of these proceeds of the percentages allowed them by the bankruptcy law on estates administered in bankruptcy, because these proceeds were no part of any such estate. (4) The order that the trustee pay out of these proceeds to railroad companies the unpaid freight charges upon the property was erroneous, because no claim or proof of any lien thereon tor such charges was proved or presented, no railroad companies to which such charges were due were specified, and no amounts were found due in the order. [Ed. Note. — For other cases, see Bankruptcy, Dec. Dig. §§ 140, 267, 223, 368.*]