Roche v. New Hampshire Nat. Bank, 4585.
Citation | 192 F.2d 203 |
Decision Date | 14 November 1951 |
Docket Number | No. 4585.,4585. |
Parties | ROCHE v. NEW HAMPSHIRE NAT. BANK. |
Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (1st Circuit) |
John W. King, Manchester, N. H., for appellant.
Charles M. Dale, Portsmouth, N. H. (Ray E. Burkett, Portsmouth, N. H., on the brief), for appellee.
Before MAGRUDER, Chief Judge, and WOODBURY and HARTIGAN, Circuit Judges.
This is an appeal from a judgment for the defendant, entered by the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire, in a suit by a trustee in bankruptcy to recover from the defendant bank a payment made by the bankrupt in the sum of $1010.00, alleged to have been a voidable preference. The action was tried to a jury.
The only substantial question the jury had before it was whether or not the defendant creditor had reasonable cause to believe that the bankrupt was insolvent at the time of the payment. It may be assumed that the other elements of a preferential transfer were proved.
The trustee argues that all the elements of a preferential transfer were shown, including that the defendant had reasonable cause to believe the bankrupt insolvent at the time of said payment and that there was no genuine issue of fact to present to the jury and that the verdict was clearly disdainful of the evidence. Consequently, he concludes the court erred in not directing a verdict for the plaintiff-trustee.
The trustee stresses the point that the only witness called in behalf of the defendant was defendant's general bookkeeper who testified that his work was of a mechanical nature and that he knew nothing of the arrangements between defendant's president and the bankrupt. The trustee further argues that the defendant introduced no evidence to deny the alleged voidable preference.
Wyant was adjudged a bankrupt upon a voluntary petition filed September 27, 1948.
The trustee had the burden of proof to show that the defendant had reasonable cause to believe that Wyant was insolvent at the time he made the payment to the defendant on August 21, 1948. Harrison v. Merchants Nat. Bank, 8 Cir., 124 F.2d 871; Collier on Bankruptcy (14th Ed.), Vol. 3, § 60.62, p. 1043.
The testimony produced on examination of the bankrupt could have provided the basis upon which a jury might conclude that the defendant did not have reasonable cause to believe the bankrupt was insolvent. The fact that the defendant through its president had told the bankrupt it would loan him money to satisfy his other creditors might well have been a controlling factor in the jury's verdict. It could have believed that the defendant would not have told the bankrupt this if the defendant thought Wyant was insolvent. In Moore's Federal Practice (2nd Ed.) Vol. 5, § 50.02, pp. 2315, 2316, it is stated:
It cannot be said on the record here, when considered with the reasonable inferences that could flow therefrom, that the evidence was "so insufficient in fact as to be insufficient in law". Mt. Adams & E. P. Inclined Ry. Co. v. Lowery, 6 Cir., 74 F. 463, 475. The motion for a directed verdict raises a question of law only. See Marsh v. Illinois Cent. R. Co., 5 Cir., 175 F.2d 498.
It was a jury question whether or not the defendant here had reasonable cause to believe the bankrupt at the time of the payment in question was insolvent. See Widetzky v. Pilgrim Trust Co., 5 Cir., 108 F.2d 647.
In Tennant v. Peoria & P. U. Ry. Co., 321 U.S. 29, 35, 64 S.Ct. 409, 412, 88 L.Ed. 520, the court said: ...
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