In re Kehler
| Decision Date | 13 April 1907 |
| Docket Number | 2,626. |
| Citation | 153 F. 235 |
| Parties | In re KEHLER. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Western District of New York |
John A Van Arsdale, for petitioning creditors.
C. E Berger and S. M. Enterline, for committee of bankrupt.
The involuntary petition was filed in this court before Kehler the alleged bankrupt, was judicially adjudged a lunatic by the court of common pleas of Schuylkill county, Pa. Upon the instant of filing the petition this court acquired jurisdiction over the property of the bankrupt, and it came under its control and direction. A receiver was subsequently appointed to take the property of the bankrupt found in the Western district of New York into his control and safely keep the same subject to the provisions of the bankrupt act. The term 'bankrupt' includes a person against whom an involuntary petition shall not abate because of his death or insanity, but the same shall be conducted and concluded in the same manner, as far as possible, as though he had not died or become insane. The inquisition under the statute of the state of Pennsylvania relating to lunacy beyond doubt was conclusive as against later acts by the bankrupt, but the retrospective findings of the jury did not include the period of time when such acts are claimed to have been committed. True, an insane person cannot commit an act of bankruptcy but, if Kehler was compos mentis at the time the acts were committed, the petition by creditors being filed before he was adjudged insane, I think the court acquired jurisdiction of the proceeding.
Counsel for the general guardian of the lunatic place stress upon In re Funk (D.C.) 101 F. 244, where it was broadly held that a court of bankruptcy will not entertain jurisdiction of a petition by creditors to have a person adjudged a bankrupt who prior to the filing of such petition had been regularly and duly adjudged insane. In that case however, the court expressed the opinion that in cases where the insanity had not been adjudged, and creditors sought the adjudication of the bankrupt, a court of bankruptcy might properly exercise jurisdiction and could hold the party responsible for acts committed prior to the ascertainment of his mental incapacity. This principle, in which I concur, would seem to justify a continuance of this proceeding. In re Eisenberg (D.C.) 117 F. 786, the court declined to entertain jurisdiction in proceedings in bankruptcy instituted by the committee...
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In re Murray
...(involuntary petition against incompetent permitted where act of bankruptcy was prior to adjudication of incompetence); In re Kehler, 153 F. 235, 236 (W.D.N.Y.1907) (an insane person cannot commit an act of bankruptcy; but involuntary petition valid if bankrupt was compos mentis at the time......
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Myers v. Jefferson Standard Life Ins. Co.
...life, intelligence, will and separate individual existence; distinguished from an irrational brute, an inanimate thing." In re Kehler (D. C.) 153 F. 235-237, it was held that under the Bankruptcy Act providing that any natural person may be adjudged an involuntary bankrupt, the word "person......
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In re Ward
... ... The Funk ... Case (D.C.) 101 F. 244, is distinguishable from this because ... there the adjudication of lunacy was made, and the property ... of the lunatic put into possession of his guardian, before ... the petition in bankruptcy was filed. In the Kehler Case ... (D.C.) 153 F. 235, where a petition in involuntary ... proceedings was filed before the alleged bankrupt had been ... [161 F. 758] ... a lunatic, Judge Hazel denied the motion to dismiss the ... petition because the jurisdiction of the bankruptcy court ... attached before the ... ...
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Byrd v. Pescor, 691.
...character and clothed in his right mind. It is the rule that an insane person or a lunatic is not a person in the eye of the law. In re Kehler, D.C., 153 F. 235; 48 C.J. The Ashley case presents the anomalous situation where an insane person, so considered by the court, is permitted to pros......