Plymouth Cordage Company v. Smith

• Decision Date: 16 May 1904
• Docket Number: No. 565,565
• Citation: 24 S.Ct. 725,194 U.S. 311,48 L.Ed. 992
• Parties: PLYMOUTH CORDAGE COMPANY, A. B. Kelley, Newton Wagon Company, and Maggie O'Brien v. J. A. SMITH and Clinton F. Irwin, Judge
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

194 U.S. 311

24 S.Ct. 725

48 L.Ed. 992

PLYMOUTH CORDAGE COMPANY, A. B. Kelley, Newton Wagon Company, and Maggie O'Brien

v J. A. SMITH and Clinton F. Irwin, Judge.

No. 565.

Submitted April 5, 1904.

Decided May 16, 1904.

This was a petition to the circuit court of appeals for the eighth circuit to superintend and revise, in matter of law, certain proceedings in bankruptcy had in the district court of Kingfisher county, Oklahoma, on which a question or proposition of law arose concerning which that court desired the instruction of this court, and accordingly granted a certificate setting forth: (1) Section 24 a, b, of the bankruptcy law [30 Stat. at L. 553, chap. 541, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 3431]; (2) the order of this court of May 11, 1891, assigning the territory of Oklahoma to the eighth judicial circuit, pursuant to § 15 of the judiciary act of March 3, 1891 [26 Stat. at L. 830, chap. 517, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 554]; (3) the filing of the petition to superintend and revise in matter of law the proceedings of the district court of Kingfisher county, Oklahoma, in the following particulars:

'(a) On March 23, 1903, a petition was pending in said court to adjudge J. A. Smith an involuntary bakrupt. The district court on that date permitted three creditors to withdraw from said petition.

'(b) On April 6, 1903, the district court of Kingfisher county, Oklahoma, sustained a motion to dismiss a petition in involuntary bankruptcy theretofore filed against J. A. Smith.

'(c) On April 6, 1903, the district court of Kingfisher county, Oklahoma, denied the prayer of certain creditors of J. A. Smith, asking leave to join in the petition in involuntary bankruptcy against J. A. Smith.

'(d) On April 14, 1903, the district court of Kingfisher county, Oklahoma, refused to permit certain creditors of J. A. Smith to file a motion asking the court to set aside the order of April 6, 1903, dismissing the petition in involuntary bankruptcy against J. A. Smith.'

(4) That petitioners prayed the court 'to set aside each and all of the foregoing orders so entered by the district court of Kingfisher county, Oklahoma.'

And propounding the following question or proposition of law:

'Does the United States circuit court of appeals for the eighth circuit have the jurisdiction to superintend and revise, in matter of law, the proceedings of the district court of Kingfisher county, Oklahoma, in bankruptcy?'

Messrs. E. C. Brandenburg, Edwin A. Krauthoff, Patrick S. Nagle, W. A. McCarteney, and Messrs. Brandenburg & Brandenburg and Karnes, New, & Kranuthoff for Plymouth Cordage Company et al.

No brief was filed for Smith et al.

Mr. Chief Justice Fuller delivered the opinion of the court:

By the bankruptcy law, the district courts of the United States in the several states, the supreme court of the District of Columbia, the district courts of the several territories, and the United States courts in the Indian territory and the district of Alaska, are made courts of bankruptcy.

By subdivision 3 of § 1, the words 'appellate courts' are defined to 'include the circuit courts of appeals of the United States, the supreme courts of the territories, and the Supreme Court of the United States.'

'Appellate jurisdiction of controversies arising in bankruptcy proceedings from the courts of bankruptcy from which they have appellate jurisdiction in other cases,' is vested by § 24a in the Supreme Court of the United States, the circuit courts of appeals of the United States, and the supreme courts of the territories. And by § 24b it is provided that the several circuit courts of appeals shall have jurisdiction in equity 'to superintend and revise, in matter of law, the proceedings of the several inferior courts of bankruptcy within their jurisdiction.'

By § 25a appeals, 'as in equity cases, may be taken in bankruptcy proceedings from the courts of bankruptcy to the circuit court of appeals of the United States, and to the supreme court of the territories' from judgments adjudging or refusing to adjudge the defendant a bankrupt; granting or denying a discharge; and allowing or rejecting a claim of $500 or over.¹

The act clearly distinguishes between 'controversies arising in bankruptcy proceedings' and 'bankruptcy proceedings' proper, and between supervisory jurisdiction in a summary way in matter of law, and jurisdiction by appeal or writ of error. Appellate jurisdiction over controversies, as in other cases, is vested by § 24a, and over certain designated bankruptcy proceedings by § 25a, by appeal, as in equity cases, bringing up both law and fact.

The question before us arises on a petition to revise certain proceedings in a court of bankruptcy of the territory of Oklahoma. That territory, by order of this court, as required by law, was assigned in 1891 to the eighth judicial circuit, 139 U. S. 707, 35 L. ed. 1128 b, 11 Sup. Ct. Rep. IV., and the courts of the territory were thereby brought within the appellate jurisdiction of the circuit court of appeals for that circuit.

By the judiciary act of March 3, 1891, that jurisdiction embraced the review of the judgments, orders, and decrees of the supreme courts of the territories in cases in which the judgments of the circuit courts of appeals were made final by that act, but in other cases the jurisdiction remained in this court. Shute v. Keyser, 149 U. S. 649, 37 L. ed. 884, 13 Sup. Ct. Rep. 960.

Then came the...