Lambert v. National Hog Co.

• Decision Date: 04 January 1919
• Docket Number: 187
• Citation: 106 A. 541,263 Pa. 354
• Parties: Lambert et al. v. National Hog Company
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

106 A. 541

263 Pa. 354

Lambert et al. v. National Hog Company

No. 187

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

January 4, 1919

October 22, 1918, Submitted

Appeal, No. 187, Oct. T., 1918, by the South Side Trust Company of Pittsburgh, Receiver (now trustee) in Bankruptcy of the Estate of the National Hog Company, and Albert J Marsh et al., Creditors of the National Hog Company, from decree of C.P. Allegheny Co., Jan. T., 1918, Docket A, No 673, dismissing exceptions to account of the receiver, T. M Gealey, in case of H. R. Lambert et al. v. National Hog Company. Reversed.

Exceptions to account of receiver. Before CARNAHAN, COHEN, MacFARLANE and SHAFER, JJ.

The court dismissed the exceptions. The receiver in bankruptcy and creditors of the National Hog Co. appealed.

Error assigned was the order of the court dismissing exceptions.

The decree of the court below is reversed, the exceptions reinstated, and the record remitted with a procedendo.

Lowrie C. Barton and Lewis M. Alpern, for appellants, cited: In re Sage, 224 F. 525; In re Neuburger, 233 F. 701; Gealey v. South Side Trust Co., 41 Am. B.R. 645; In re Williams, 240 F. 788; Graham Mfg. Co. v. Davy-Pocohontas Coal Co., 238 F. 488; In re Standard Fuller Earth Co., 186 F. 578.

R. B. Ivory, for appellee, cited: Loveless v. Southern Grocery Co., 159 F. 415; Watts & Sachs, 190 U.S. 1; Shannon v. Shepard, 42 Am. B.R. 12.

Before BROWN, C.J., FRAZER, WALLING, SIMPSON and FOX, JJ.

OPINION

MR. JUSTICE SIMPSON:

On bill filed the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, appointed a receiver for the National Hog Company, an insolvent corporation. Subsequently proceedings in bankruptcy were instituted in the District Court of the United States for the Western District of Pennsylvania, and a receiver and afterwards a trustee in bankruptcy were appointed by that court. These proceedings, of course, superseded the receivership in the Court of Common Pleas. Its receiver, however, had performed services in carrying out the purposes of his appointment, and had certain funds for distribution to those entitled thereto. He filed his account in the Court of Common Pleas, and exceptions thereto were filed by the receiver in bankruptcy and by certain of the unsecured creditors of the National Hog Company. These exceptions alleged (a) that the account should have been filed in the bankruptcy proceedings, especially as certain of the credits claimed were for services rendered and expenses incurred and paid after the inception of the bankruptcy proceedings; and (b) that certain of the credits claimed in the account were excessive and improper. The court below without taking testimony or referring the matter to an auditor, dismissed the exceptions and confirmed the account absolutely. From that decree this appeal is taken.

It would be an anomaly in the law if a receiver, who is an officer of the court appointing him, was denied the right to account to that court. He is the arm of the court, doing the court's work, and all that he has he holds for the court. Doubtless Congress could require that an accounting where bankruptcy supervenes, should be had only in the bankruptcy court, for the control of Congress over such matters is supreme; but it would require a clear expression of such an intention, before the courts would so hold. In the present case there is no such clear expression in the statutes. The district courts, sitting in bankruptcy, have varied in...