Denny v. Bennett

Citations

• 128 U.S. 489
• 9 S. Ct. 134
• 32 L. Ed. 491
• 1888 U.S. LEXIS 2242

Syllabus

<p>The act of the legislature of Minnesota of March 7, 1881, c. 148, entitled “ An Act to prevent-debtors from giving preference to creditors, and to secure the equal distribution of the propérty of debtors among their creditors, and fpr the release of debts against debtors,” which provides that', whenever the property of a debtor is seized by an attachment or execution against him, he may make an assignment of . all’his property and ' estate, not exempt by/law, for the equal benefit of all his creditors who shall file releáses of- their debts and claims, and that his property. shaE be equitably distributed among such creditors is not repugnant to the Constifutiori of the United States, so far as it affects citizens of States other ' than Minnesota.</p> <p>Statutes limiting the right of the creditor’to enforce his claims against the: property of the debtor are part of all contracts made after they take., effect; and do not impair the obligation of such contracts.</p> <p>A clause in an assignment for the benefit of creditors under the Minnesota Statute of March 7, 1881, directing the payment to the assignor of any surplus remaining after payment in full to creditors proving tlieir debts, does not invalidate the assignment.</p> <p>k state statute providing for the distribution of the property of a debtor among his creditors, and his discharge from his debts, does not release a debt due to a citizen of another State, who does not prove his debt, nor become subject to the jurisdiction of the court.</p> <p>An application4>y the assignee of an insolvent debtor, under a state statute, • to be admitted as a party in a suit pending in a Circuit Court of the ■ United States against the insolvent, in which his property was attached by the marshal on mesne process, and for a dissolution of the attachment, and an order of the Circuit Court allowing him to become a party, but refusing to dissolve the attachment, do not make the assignee a party to that suit without further action