First National Bank of Princeton, Illinois v. Charles Littlefield

• Decision Date: 02 December 1912
• Docket Number: No. 572,572
• Citation: First National Bank of Princeton, Illinois v. Charles Littlefield, 226 U.S. 110, 33 S.Ct. 78, 57 L.Ed. 145 (1912)
• Parties: FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF PRINCETON, ILLINOIS, et al., Appts., v. CHARLES E. LITTLEFIELD, Trustee, etc
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

226 U.S. 110

33 S.Ct. 78

57 L.Ed. 145

FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF PRINCETON, ILLINOIS, et al., Appts.,

v CHARLES E. LITTLEFIELD, Trustee, etc.

No. 572.

Submitted November 4, 1912.

Decided December 2, 1912.

Mr. Thorndike Saunders for appellants.

Mr. Daniel P. Hays for appellee.

Memorandum opinion, by direction of the court, by Mr. Chief Justice White:

Albert O. Brown and others, members of a firm known as A. O. Brown & Company, stockbrokers in New York city, were adjudicated bankrupts. The National Bank of Princeton and four other claimants petitioned to have the receiver in bankruptcy return certain sums of money to which they asserted ownership, because the amounts claimed had been sent to the firm to buy shares of stock for account of the claimants, and the stock had never been delivered to them. The special master, to whom the matter was referred, reported in favor of the claimants. The district court, however, disapproved the conclusion of the master and rejected the claims. The circuit court of appeals reversed. 99 C. C. A. 345, 175 Fed. 769. It was held that as the stock bought with the moneys of the claimants and for their account belonged to them, they were entitled as owners, the stock having been wrongfully converted by the bankrupts, to take out of the bankrupt estate so much of the avails of their wrongfully converted stock as they might be able to trace into the hands of the receiver. Upon amended pleadings a further hearing was had before the special master, who reported against the claimants because it...