In re Hirsch

• Decision Date: 08 November 1899
• Citation: 97 F. 571
• Parties: In re HIRSCH et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York

97 F. 571

In re HIRSCH et al.

United States District Court, S.D. New York.

November 8, 1899

Benno Loewy and Charles Goldzier, for bankrupts.

E. G Benedict and L. A. U. Zinke, for opposing creditors.

BROWN District Judge.

The discharge of the above bankrupts is opposed (1) upon the ground that the court has no jurisdiction, where, as in this case, the application if for the adjudication of a partnership and there are no assets; (2) on the ground that assets of the firm were concealed and that various false oaths have been made in regard thereto. Although these objections are mutually exclusive of each other, I shall briefly consider each.

The petition, signed by all the co-partners, was filed on October 27, 1898, stating that the bankrupts composed the firm of S Hirsch & Sons; that the firm had been dissolved, but that no final settlement of its affairs had been made; that they were insolvent; that the firm had no assets whatever; that Solomon and Seligman Hirsch had no individual debts; that the firm debts (stating them) amounted to above $15,000, and that Adolph Hirsch owed one individual debt of $47.50 only, and that each of the co-partners has only a small amount of individual property all of which is claimed to be exempt.

The evidence shows that the firm of S. Hirsch & Co. carried on the fur business in Mercer street, New York, for several years prior to May 7, 1888, when the firm failed. On that day confessions of judgment were entered up in favor of several relatives and their attorney, upon which their leviable stock was sold by the sheriff on execution, and bought in by one Meyers of Philadelphia, who thereafter continued the business at the same place for about a year, having the bankrupts in his employ. The rest of the assets of the firm were conveyed by a general assignment made on May 7, 1888, to an assignee in behalf of the creditors, under which a dividend was paid, and the assignee discharged. About a year after the failure a similar business in furs was stated in Greene street by Rosa Hirsch, the wife of Seligman Hirsch, and the mother of Adolph and Solomon, with another son Simon as her partner, under the name of Hirsch & Co. That business has been continued up to the present time. The bankrupts were employed in this business; Adolph and Solomon were evidently its general managers; their mother gave little personal attention to it, and the other partner Simon, was a deaf mute who took but a very subordinate part. The objecting creditors claim that the business of Hirsch & Co. is in reality the business of the old firm of S. Hirsch & Co., that is, of the bankrupts who now seek their discharge. The alleged false oaths occur in the evidence of the bankrupts denying this claim.

1. The evidence is not sufficient to justify the contention of the opposing creditors. The creditors present no evidence on the subject except the evidence of the bankrupts themselves and of Mrs. Hirsch; and while there are more or less minor inconsistencies and contradictions in details, they all agree on the general facts, that prior to the failure of the firm in 1888 Mrs. Hirsch had loaned to S. Hirsch & Co. from time to time moneys amounting to about $5,000, for which the judgment was confessed to her, but upon which she had received nothing; that about a year following the failure the new business was started upon $1,200 capital supplied by her and $200 supplied by her son Simon; that the bankrupts put no capital in the new concern, and had no interest in it except as employes. The notes upon which the confession of judgment was given were produced and proved, running back to 1884. There is no evidence whatever going to show that the money put into the new concern came from any of the bankrupts. The circumstances indicate strongly that everything belonging to the bankrupts was swept away in the failure of the year before, by the assignment, and the sales on execution. The execution in favor of their own attorney was only about half satisfied, as appears by the sheriff's return. The execution in favor of Mrs. Hirsch was returned nulla bona, and there is no evidence showing that she ever received anything upon her judgment. The circumstance mostly relied on to discredit Mrs. Hirsch's claim as to her advancing $1,200 to start the new business, is her testimony that this came from her savings which she had made from time to time, but which she had not deposited anywhere, but kept about her. Unsatisfactory as this is, even making allowance for the different habits of...