Steelman v. All Continent Corporation

• Decision Date: 26 April 1937
• Docket Number: No. 638,638
• Citation: 301 U.S. 278,57 S.Ct. 705,81 L.Ed. 1085
• Parties: STEELMAN v. ALL CONTINENT CORPORATION
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

301 U.S. 278

57 S.Ct. 705

81 L.Ed. 1085

STEELMAN

v ALL CONTINENT CORPORATION.

No. 638.

Argued March 29, 30, 1937.

Decided April 26, 1937.

Messrs. Wm. D. Whitney, of New York City, and Wm. Elmer Brown, Jr., of Atlantic City, N.J., for petitioner.

Mr. Murry C. Becker, of New York City, for respondent.

Mr. Justice CARDOZO delivered the opinion of the Court.

The question is one as to the power of a court of bankruptcy, in the situation developed in the record, to enjoin the prosecution of a suit in another federal court upon the ground that the suit, if passed to a decree, may thwart an inquiry into frauds charged against the bankrupt, or make relief against them difficult.

William Fox was adjudicated a bankrupt on May 29, 1936, in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. On the petition of two creditors an order was made under section 21a of the Bankruptcy Act (11 U.S.C. § 44(a), 11 U.S.C.A. § 44(a), for the examination of All Continent Corporation (a Delaware corporation), its president Eva Fox, who was also the bankrupt's wife, his daughters, and other witnesses. The wife refused to submit to examination, and was cited for contempt. When this record was made up, the proceeding to punish her was still undetermined. Meanwhile the examination proceeded with the aid of the witnesses responding to the order. After seventeen or more hearings the Referee made an order on August 18, 1936, whereby All Continent Corporation was directed to deliver all its books and records to the trustee in bankruptcy (petitioner in this court) for examination and audit. As a basis for the order, which was confirmed by the court with unimportant changes (In re Fox (D.C.) 16 F.Supp. 950), the referee certified the facts as they had been developed through the evidence before him. By this it appeared that All Continent Corporation was the creation of the bankrupt himself, who had supplied every dollar of its capital; that in doing this he had divested himself of a substantial portion of his property; that the entire capital stock, then claimed by his wife, had been kept in his name upon the corporate books; that he had retained in his possession and under his control the assets of the corporation, made up of securities, and had dealt with them on many occasions as if they were his own; that he held a power of attorney, broad in its terms, authorizing him to act for the corporation in the transaction of its business; that such books and records as were already in evidence disclosed disbursements for his account, discrepancies between the entries and those in his private books, and also erasures, corrections and interlineations affecting the scrutinized transactions, as well as sales to the corporation on the eve of bankruptcy. In the view of the Referee, this chain of facts, combined with many others in the testimony before him, was proof 'that the affairs of the All Continent Corporation were so related to and intertwined with the property and affairs of the bankrupt' as to show the need for an exhaustive examination and audit of all the documents available.

The enforcement of the order for the production of the books and records was stayed by the District Court until September 9, 1936. On that day the trustee was served in New Jersey with a subpoena and bill of complaint in a suit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The complainant named in the bill was the All Continent Corporation, which had already filed a proof of claim against Fox in the bankruptcy proceeding; the defendants were the members of the partnership of J. W. Sparks & Co., with whom were joined as absentee defendants, Capital Company, a corporation, and the petitioner in his capacity as trustee of the estate. The suit was brought under section 57 of the Judicial Code (28 U.S.C. § 118 (28 U.S.C.A. § 118)) to remove a cloud upon the title to personal property claimed by the complainant. The trustee not being 'an inhabitant of or found within' the district of the suit, an order directing him to plead was served upon him in New Jersey after the service of the bill. Judicial Code, § 57, 28 U.S.C. § 118 (28 U.S.C.A. § 118). The cloud to be removed had its origin in a third party subpoena issued out of a federal court in New York in proceedings supplementary to judgment. Capital Company, a corporation, had recovered a judgment against Fox before he became bankrupt. A proceeding supplementary to judgment was begun, and we know from our records that Fox refused to appear and was fined for contempt. Fox v. Capital Company, 299 U.S. 105, 57 S.Ct. 57, 81 L.Ed. 67. In aid of the same judgment, a third party subpoena was served upon Sparks & Co., stockbrokers residing in Philadelphia and there engaged in business. These brokers had upon their books an account in the name of All Continent Corporation, in which Fox was believed to have an interest as owner. The securities held in that account had a value in excess of half a million dollars, subject to a debit balance. To enable the judgment creditor to reach any equity in those securities belonging to the debtor, the subpoena served upon the brokers was accompanied by a notice, which in effect was an injunction (New York Civil Practice Act § 781), restraining them from disposing of the property of William Fox until the further order of the court. The validity of the injunction, though challenged by the brokers, was upheld upon appeal. Capital Co. v. Fox (C.C.A.) 85 F.(2d) 97, 106 A.L.R. 376. Because of that restraint, Sparks & Co. refused to permit any securities to be withdrawn from their custody or otherwise disposed of, having notice of the claim that, irrespective of the form of the account, the securities belonged to Fox. Anxious to resume the control of the securities, All Continent Corporation sued in Pennsylvania to establish title to the res. Capital Company was stated in the bill to have created a cloud upon the title by issuing the third party subpoena with the accompanying injunction. The trustee in bankruptcy was stated to have helped to create the cloud by joining with Capital Company in a request that the subpoena be continued after the bankruptcy petition. Relief was demanded decreeing All Continent Corporation to be the owner of the securities and entitled to possession upon payment of the debit balance owing to the brokers.

The trustee in bankruptcy upon service of the bill of complaint petitioned the court of bankruptcy that it stay the prosecution of the suit in Pennsylvania. The petition for a stay was granted. The opinion of the District Judge (In re Fox (D.C.) 16 F.Supp. 949, 950) states that a grave question has arisen as to the ownership of the assets and shares of All Continent Corporation. Litigation as to such ownership 'ought to be conducted by trustee after there has been a full and complete disclosure of the facts in the 21(a) examinations.' 'To require the trustee to appear and defend that suit (i.e., the suit in Pennsylvania) * * * would interfere materially with proper administration.' Further prosecution against him was accordingly restrained.

From that decree All Continent Corporation appealed to the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. By consent of the parties the court made an order including three additional documents in the transcript of the record: (1) The bill of complaint in a suit in the Court of Chancery in New Jersey; (2) an order to show cause for an injunction pendente lite and the appointment of a receiver; and (3) the answer of Sparks & Co. in the suit in Pennsylvania. The suit in the New Jersey Chancery was brought by the trustee in bankruptcy against the bankrupt William Fox, his wife, his daughters, his grandchildren, and the All Continent Corporation. The bill was filed within a week from the date of the restraining order. It charges fraud in the transfer of securities and other assets to the corporation at the time of its creation and also at later dates. It charges fraud in the assignment of the shares of the corporation by Fox to his wife, partly for her own benefit and partly for the benefit of children and grandchildren. It charges fraud in the opening of accounts with stockbrokers, ostensibly for the use of the corporation itself, but really for the use of Fox alone. All these transactions are stated to have occurred in execution of a unitary scheme, to which Fox, his wife and children and the corporation were parties in its several manifestations, for the hindrance of creditors in the enforcement of their rights and remedies. A decree is prayed enjoin- ing the corporation from disposing of its assets, appointing a receiver to manage and preserve them during the pendency of the suit, annulling all the transfers tainted by the fraud, and decreeing a trust for the benefit of the bankrupt and through him for the trustee. Upon the filing of the bill the chancellor made an order to show cause why a receiver should not be appointed, and he enjoined in the interim any transfer of the assets. One other document, as we have indicated, was added to the transcript. This was the answer of Sparks & Co. in the suit in Pennsylvania. In that answer they state the acceptance of securities from All Continent Corporation without notice that Fox or others had any interest therein; the existence of a debit balance of $308,764.97; the readiness of the customer to pay the debit balance on the return of the securities; and the hardship to the brokers involved in continuing the account with all the risks incidental to future changes in the market.

Upon the record thus supplemented the Circuit Court of Appeals considered the appeal. In re Fox, 86 F.(2d) 913, 914. It said that 'the real question in issue here is whether or not the New Jersey court (i.e., the court of bankruptcy in New Jersey) had the power to enjoin the appellant from prosecuting its suit, under the facts in this case, in the ...