Metcalf v. Barker

Citations

• 187 U.S. 165
• 23 S. Ct. 67
• 47 L. Ed. 122
• 1902 U.S. LEXIS 805

Syllabus

<p>The question in this case was whether under section 67/ of the bankruptcy act of 1898 where a final decree recovered within four months pf the petition, but which was based on a judgment creditors’ bill in equity filed long prior thereto, the- creditor had a lien on the assets involved in the action which was superior to the title of the trustee in bankruptcy, or whether (as was held by the District Court) section 67/prevented the complainant from acquiring any benefit from the lien, or the fund attached except through' the trustee in bankruptcy pro rata with other creditors. Held, that while the lien created by a judgment creditors’ bill is contingent in the sense that it may possibly be defeated by the event of the suit, it is in itself» and so long as it exists, a charge, a specific lien, on the assets, not subject to being divested save by payment of the judgment sought to be collected, and a judgment or decree in enforcement of an otherwise valid preexisting lien is not the judgment denounced by the bankruptcy statute which is plainly confined, to judgments creating liens.</p> <p>When therefore a judgment creditor files his bill in equity long prior to the bankruptcy of the defendant, thereby obtaining a lien on specific assets, and diligently prosecutes it to a final judgment, he acquires a lien on the property of the bankrupts which is superior to the title of the trustee, and a District Court of the United States does not have jurisdiction to make an order in bankruptcy proceedings against the defendants'enjoining him from enforcing such lien.</p>