Roberts v. WP Ford & Son

• Decision Date: 10 August 1948
• Docket Number: No. 5738.,5738.
• Citation: 169 F.2d 151
• Parties: ROBERTS v. W. P. FORD & SON, Inc. In re ROBERTS.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

169 F.2d 151 (1948)

ROBERTS v. W. P. FORD & SON, Inc. In re ROBERTS.

No. 5738.

Circuit Court of Appeals. Fourth Circuit.

August 10, 1948.

Louis B. Fine, of Norfolk, Va., for appellant.

Edward S. Ferebee, of Norfolk, Va., for appellee.

Before PARKER, and DOBIE, Circuit Judges, and WATKINS, District Judge.

PARKER, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal for an order refusing a discharge in bankruptcy. Bankrupt is a furniture salesman, who until shortly before the filing of the petition in bankruptcy was employed by the objecting creditor. From statements made at the bar of the court, it appears that bankrupt quit that employment because of a reduction in salary and shortly thereafter executed to the creditor a promissory note for an indebtedness of something over $1100, upon which the creditor proceeded immediately to secure judgment. To protect himself from garnishment proceedings on this judgment, which he feared would result in the loss of the new position that he had obtained, bankrupt filed a petition in bankruptcy.

There is no contention that the indebtedness due the objecting creditor was contracted in any fraudulent manner, that bankrupt has fraudulently concealed assets or that there are present here any of the other matters evidencing fraud and bad faith usually encountered in objections to discharge. No evidence whatever was offered by the objecting creditor, but opposition to discharge was based solely on matters elicited from the examination of the bankrupt. The chief ground of objection was that, in his examination at the first meeting of creditors and at the hearing upon his petition for discharge, the bankrupt did not sufficiently account for the expenditure of his salary for the years 1945 and 1946. There was an additional objection that he failed to list among his assets certain household and kitchen furniture, which, he claimed, belonged to his wife.

Bankrupt's salary for 1945 was $5,270.45 and his salary and bonus for the year 1946 was $7,295. More than a thousand dollars of this was paid in income tax each year. Bankrupt kept no books or records of his expenditures, and when asked what became of his salary had to rely upon estimates or guesses; but that he spent it all quite clearly appears when consideration is given to the fact that he lived in an apartment costing $900 per year, drank a good deal, played poker, entertained his friends, contributed to various causes and took trips from time to time to New York and Chicago on which he spent far in excess of the amount allowed him by his employer. The evidence gives a clear picture of a man living beyond his means; and there is nothing to show that any part of his salary stayed with him for any considerable length of time. On the contrary, the evidence is that he borrowed money from his employer during the time in question; and the fact that he left the employment in debt to his employer indicates that he was spending all of his salary and more as he went along.

The findings of fact by the Referee are rather sketchy and amount to no more than that the bankrupt's account of the expenditure of his salary was indefinite, contradictory and unsatisfactory to the Referee. The order of the judge does not expressly approve the findings, but...