Duryea Power Company v. Herbert Sternbergh
Decision Date | 14 November 1910 |
Docket Number | No. 29,29 |
Parties | DURYEA POWER COMPANY, Bankrupt, by Its Trustee, the Berks County Trust Company, Appt., v. HERBERT M. STERNBERGH |
Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Messrs. Edwin C. Brandenburg, Clarence A. Brandenburg, F. Walter Brandenburg, Andrew A. Leiser, and Thomas K. Leidy for appellant.
Messrs. Cyrus G. Derr and John G. Johnson for appellee.
This case arose on a controversy as to the right of the appellee, Sternbergh, to vote on the selection of a trustee in bankruptcy. At the first meeting of the creditors, Sternbergh offered for allowance a proof of claim for $14,438.86, which was objected to on the ground that Sternbergh was indebted to the bankrupt company for unpaid stock. Sternbergh announced that he intended to use this claim for voting purposes. After a hearing, the referee refused to allow the claim for use in the election, and certified the facts, as Sternbergh's vote, if allowed, would have elected a different trustee. The district judge stated the question to be whether the referee was right in rejecting the claimant's offer to vote, and that it did not involve the extent but only the fact of Sternbergh's liability, and he affirmed the action of the referee. Thereupon Sternbergh filed a petition to the circuit court of appeals, seeking a revision of the decree in matter of law under § 24b of the bankruptcy law. That court, remarking that the facts were not in dispute, proceeded to discuss their significance and effect, and reversed the decree, but allowed the selection of trustee to stand, as no allegation was made against him. The bankrupt, through the trustee, appealed to this court, obtaining a certificate from a justice of this court under § 25 b, 2.
The first question to be answered is whether this is a case in which a party is entitled to take an appeal to this court under § 25. And clearly it is not. The right of appeal from a decision of a circuit court of appeals allowing or rejecting a claim is given by 25b only where the decision is final, whether there is a certificate under § 25 b, 2, or not. The circuit court of appeals may render a final decision when an appeal is taken to it under 25a from a judgment allowing or rejecting a claim of $500 or over. But this case did not and could not have come to in that way, for there was no judgment allowing or rejecting the claim. The referee's order was, 'The within claim is disallowed for the present, especially as to voting, without prejudice to the claimant's right to present the claim hereafter.' That is the order that was reviewed by the district court, and that was affirmed by it. Therefore Sternbergh's counsel, rightly apprehending that they could not appeal to the circuit court of appeals, brought their petition for revision under § 24b, alleging that the district judge erred in matter of law in confirming the order of the...
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