In re Frantzen

• Decision Date: 03 May 1884
• Citation: 20 F. 785
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois
• Parties: In re FRANTZEN, Bankrupt.

20 F. 785

In re FRANTZEN, Bankrupt.

United States Circuit Court, N.D. Illinois.

May 3, 1884

Miller Lewis & Bergen, for petitioners.

DRUMMOND J.

On the application of the bankrupt for a discharge, objections were made by one of his creditors who had proved his debt, and thereupon the case was referred to the register in bankruptcy, with a stipulation that his finding should be entered up by the district court as its order in the case. On an examination by the register, he found that the objections were not sustained; and an order to that effect being made by the district court, and that the bankrupt was entitled to his discharge, the creditor filed a petition for review in this court.

There were various objections made in the district court, but they had been reduced simply to this: that he gave a fraudulent preference, contrary to the provisions of the bankrupt act to one Julius Ahlefeldt, for the purpose of preventing his property from coming to the hands of his assignee, and being distributed according to law for the payment of his debts. This is the only allegation which this court can consider.

There is no doubt that the bankrupt, for some time before he filed his petition in bankruptcy, was in fact insolvent, but having made a sale of some property sometime previous to the filing of his petition, the evidence shows that, in all probability, if the vendee had complied with the contract which he made with the bankrupt, the latter might not have been insolvent; in fact, the contract was never complied with. The circumstances connected with the alleged fraudulent preference seem to be, in substance as follows:

Some considerable time before the bankrupt failed, Julius Ahlefeldt gave him a draft for collection, amounting to $66.18. It seems that the bankrupt, and a partner with whom he was going business sometime before, had been in the habit of receiving money as bankers, and that they issued pass-books to their depositors, among whom, at the time Ahlefeldt was one. This business had all been closed up long before the failure; but, at the time this draft was given to the bankrupt, the amount was entered in an old pass-book which Ahlefeldt had. Some of the money was paid to Ahlefeldt at the time, and some afterwards. A day or two before the filing of this petition in bankruptcy, and after his failure he gave Ahlefeldt orders on two of his debtors for the balance of what was due to him on this draft that had thus been left for collection. He says that he had indulged a hope all along, up to a time immediately preceding the filing of his petition in bankruptcy, that the party to whom he had sold the property...