Marshall v. Knox

Citations

• 83 U.S. 551
• 21 L. Ed. 481
• 16 Wall. 551
• 1872 U.S. LEXIS 1183

Syllabus

<p>1. The District Court sitting in bankruptcy has no jurisdiction to proceed .by rule to take goods seized, before any act of bankruptcy by the lessees, for rent due by them in Louisiana, under “ a writ of provisional seizure ”— and then in the hands of the sheriff, and held by him as a pledge for the payment of rent due — out of his hands, and to deliver them to the assignee in bankruptcy to be disposed of under the orders of the bankrupt court; neither the sheriff nor the lessor having been parties to the proceedings in bankruptcy nor served with process to make them such.</p> <p>2. The Circuit Court may under the second section of the Bankrupt Act entertain on bill as an original proceeding, a case thus involving a question of adverse interest in goods so seized.</p> <p>3. Under the Civil Code of Louisiana, a lessor has a right to seize, for rent in arrears, goods on the premises, and until he is paid his rent, retain them as against an assignee in bankruptcy subsequently occurring</p> <p>4. In such a case where the goods have been taken out of his hands and given to the assignee in bankruptcy, by an order of the District Court acting summarily and without jurisdiction, and sold by such assignee, the Circuit Court, having got possession of the case by bill filed by.the lessor, to be regarded as one in an original proceeding, will proceed and decide the whole controversy.</p> <p>6. And it will give the lessor the full value of the goods sold clear of all' expenses, whether the assignee obtained that value or not (limited, of course, by the amount of rent which hois entitled to have paid to him), and also to all the taxable,costs to which he has been put by the litigation. Damages beyond this refused as hardly due in the.particular case, and at any rate more properly to be claimed in a proceeding at law.</p>