THE PRESIDENT, DIRECTORS, AND COMPANY OF THE BANK OF TENNESSEE, PLAINTIFFS IN ERROR,
v.
LEWIS B. HORN

U.S. | 1854-12-01
17 How. 157 Supreme Court of the United States (1854) Caution
Also reported at: 15 L. Ed. 70 · 1854 U.S. LEXIS 505 · SCDB 1854-022
Cited by 13 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Synopsis

Under Louisiana's insolvency law, when a debtor filed for insolvency and ceded his property to creditors, all his property vested in the creditors immediately upon acceptance of the cession, removing any interest the debtor retained that could be subject to a subsequent judgment lien. The Supreme Court affirmed that the Bank of Tennessee could not seize the property through execution on a judgment obtained after the insolvency cession, as the debtor no longer possessed any property interest in the lot at that time.


© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.

Opinion of the Court
Mr. Chief Justice TANEY

Mr. Chief Justice TANEY delivered the opinion of the court.

The facts in this case, as they appear on the record, are as follows:—

Peter Corney, jr., who resided in New Orleans, on the 7th of November, 1851, filed a petition under the insolvent law of Louisiana, in the second district court, declaring his inability tó meet his engagements, and praying that a cession of his property might be accepted by the court, for the benefit of his cred*. itors, and that in the mean time. all proceedings against him should be stayed. To this petition, a schedule of his property' was annexed, in which it is apparent that the lot in question was intended to be included, but which is so erroneously described that it can hardly be identified; by the schedule alone, as a part of h'is estate.

The district court, on the day the petition was presented, accepted the cession, and ordered a meeting of the creditors on the 13 th o* December following. The meeting was held accordingly, and a syndic appointed,, and a report of the proceedings made to the court.. On the 8th of March following the court authorized a sale of the property now in dispute, by the syndic; and at that sale, in May, 1852,rthe defendant injg-ror became the purchaser. The insolvent, at the time of his petition, was indebted to the Bank, the plaintiff in error, in a large sum of money, for which a suit was then pending in the circuit court of the United States for the eastern district of Louisiana. The Bank proceeded in its suit and obtained judgment; but the judgment was rendered after the cession had been accepted and the syndic appointed by the creditors. • The Bank, however, issued an execution, under which this property was seized by the marshal, in February, 1852, and sold in the April following. The Bank was the purchaser at this sale, and obtained possession of the lot under it.

The defendant in error, after his purchase from the syndic, brought suit for the premises, and upon a trial in *the circuit court of' the United States for the eastern district of Louisiana, recovered a judgment; the court being of opinion that the property in question vested in the creditors, upon the cession-and acceptance above mentioned, and was not liable to seizure under the execution which issued upon the judgment afterwards obtained by the plaintiff in error. By an act of the legislature of Louisiana, passed on the 29th of March, 1826, all the property of an insolvent petitioner mentioned in his schedule is fully vested in the creditors, from and after the cession and acceptance; and the syndic is directed to take possession of it, and to administer and sell it, for. the benefit of the creditors. ' At the time, therefore, when the Bank obtained judgment against Corney, the. insolvent, he had no interest in the lot ir question upon which the judgment could be a lien, or which could be seized upon, on execution issuing on that judgment. The right and title, to it had, by operation of the law of the State, vested in the creditors, to be administered by the syndic, as their trustee.

Nor can the imperfect or erroneous description in the schedule. have any influence-on the decision. For it is well settled, by decisions of the courts of Louisiana, that all-the property of the insolvent, whether included in his schedule or not, passes to his creditors by the cession. 4 Ann. Rep. 492, 493; 11 Louisiana Rep. 521; 8 Rob. 128; 9 Ib. 223. Consequently, if, under the ambiguous or erroneous description in the schedule, this lot must be regarded as omitted, it still passed by the cession, and Corney had no remaining interest in it.

Neither can there be any constitutional objection to this law of the State. The validity of a state law of this description has been fully recognized in the case of Peale v. Phipps and others, 14 How. 368, and in the 'previous cases therein referred to, and cannot now be considered as an open question.

"We see no error, therefore, in the judgment of the circuit court, and it must be affirmed.

Order. This cause came on to be heard on the transcript of the record from the circuit court of the United States for the eastern district of Louisiana, and was argued by counsel. On consideration whereof, it is now here ordered and adjudged by this court that the judgment of the said circuit court in this cause' be and the same is hereby affirmed with costs.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Byers v. McAULEY, 149 U.S. 608 (U.S. 1893)
    …ct between jurisdictions of independent and concurrent authority, that which has first acquired possession of the res, which is the subject of the litigation, is entitled to administer it. Williams v. Benedict, 8 How. 107; Bank of Tennessee v. Horn, 17 How. 157; Yonley v. Lavender, 21 Wall. 276; Taylor v. Carryl, 20 How. 583; Freeman v. Howe, 24 How. 150.” And in Borer v. Chapman, 119 U. S. 587, 600, after a quotation from the opinion in Payne v. Hook, it is added: “The only qualification [*618] in the app…
  • Ellis and Others v. Davis, 109 U.S. 485 (U.S. 1883)
    …between jurisdictions of independent and concurrent authority, that which has first acquired possession of the res, which is the subject of the litigation, is entitled to administer to it. Williams v. Benedict, 8 How. 107; Bank of Tennessee v. Horn, 17 How. 157; Yonley v. Lavender, 21 Wall. 276; Taylor v. Carryl, 20 How. 583; Freeman v. Howe, 24 How. 150; Hook v. Payne, 450; 14 Wall. 252. It was said by this court in Gaines v. Fuentes, 92 U. S. 10-18, Mr. Justice Field delivering its opinion, that ' “ Th…
  • Bock v. Perkins, 139 U.S. 628 (U.S. 1891)
    …for the plaintiff which are supposed to announce a contrary doctrine. Most of them, however, will be found, upon careful examination, to proceed upon the peculiar wording of the instruments construed. Among these cases is Bank of Tennessee v. Horn, 17 How. 157, 159, 160, where the question was whether a certain lot' was embraced in a cession made, for the benefit of creditors under a statute of Louisiana, approved March 26, 1826, relating to the voluntary surrender of property by insolvent persons. Laws o…

Previewing 3 of 7 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw