In re Arnold

• Decision Date: 10 May 1909
• Parties: In re ARNOLD.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Georgia

169 F. 1000

In re ARNOLD.

United States District Court, N.D. Georgia, Eastern Division.

May 10, 1909

J. H Felker, for bankrupt.

George B. Rush, for creditors.

NEWMAN District Judge.

Attached to the schedule filed in this case, the bankrupt sets up his claim for exemption, as follows:

'The bankrupt claims to be exempt by state laws (section 2827 et seq. and section 5912 of the Code of Georgia) $1,600 worth of property, and he will claim this amount to be invested in a homestead for his family, consisting of his wife and two minor girl children, six and four years of age. This exemption is claimed out of the stock of goods, but the bankrupt is willing for the goods to be sold, as the stock would be incapable of division without injury, and all parties, including the bankrupt would be benefited by a sale of the property as a whole.'

The schedule to which this claim of exemption is attached was filed March 27, 1908. On May 28, 1908, it appears that the trustee filed his report setting apart for the bankrupt the exemption as claimed from the stock of goods, and valued the same at $1,600. A list or inventory of the property so set apart from the bankrupt's stock of merchandise filed by the trustee is in the record sent to the District Court by the referee. It shows various articles of merchandise such as would be kept in the stock of a general dealer.

There seems to have been no objection filed to the trustee's action in setting apart the exemption, except that there appears to have been some difference between the trustee and the bankrupt as to the value of the goods so allowed the bankrupt. Counsel for the trustee claim that the goods so selected and set apart were moved and placed in a separate part of the store. This I understand to be denied by the counsel for the bankrupt, and the record is silent on the subject; but, whatever may be true about this, there is no doubt that particular and specific articles were designated and set apart.

In this stage of the matter, and while there was some controversy between the bankrupt and the trustee as to the valuation of the goods so set apart, it was agreed that it would be to the interest of both the bankrupt and the creditors that the stock should be sold as an entirety, and that it should be left for the district judge to decide whether or not the bankrupt is entitled to $1,600, as claimed by him, or the pro rata part of the proceeds arising from...