Bailey v. Baker Ice MacHine Co.

Citations

• 239 U.S. 268
• 36 S. Ct. 50
• 60 L. Ed. 275
• 1915 U.S. LEXIS 1487

Syllabus

<p>After reviewing cases- on conditional sale of personal property, and sale absolute with chattel mortgage back, held that the transaction involved in this case was one of conditional sale.</p> <p>Requiring a vendee to give notes for deferred instalments of purchase price is not inconsistent with retention of title in the vendor pending payment of the notes. Wm. W. Bierce, Ltd. v. Hutchins, 205 U. S. 340.</p> <p>While the exercise of a privilege to the vendor to file a mechanic’s lien for property delivered on conditional sale might be inconsistent with retention of title in the vendor, the mere reservation of such a privilege will not nullify express words to the effect that title remains in the vendor until full payment be made.</p> <p>Under the recording law of Kansas a contract of conditional sale is valid between the parties, whether filed for record or not, but is void as against a creditor of the vendee who fastens any valid lien upon the property before the contract is filed for record.</p> <p>To be within the terms of the provisions of § 60 of the Bankruptcy Act making preferential transfers voidable, the transfer must be one made by the bankrupt of his own property and which operates to prefer one creditor over another.</p> <p>A contract of conditional sale, to the vendor on failure to pay the stipulated price, held, in this case, not be to a preferential transfer by the conditional vendee under § 60 of the Bankruptcy Act.</p> <p>When not otherwise provided, the rights, remedies and powers of the trustee in bankruptcy are determined with reference to the conditions existing when the petition is filed.</p> <p>A trustee in bankruptcy cannot, under § 47a, cl. 2 of the Bankruptcy Act, assail a contract of conditional sale filed prior to, but within four months, of the petition on the ground that he has the status of a creditor fastening a lien under the provisions of state law on the property prior to the recording of the contract; and-this because the truste