Chapman v. Bowen

The firm of A. McCoy & Company, a banking copartnership at Rensselaer, Indiana, was composed of Alfred McCoy and Thomas McCoy, and on July 11, 1904, the copartnership and its individual members were respectively adjudicated bankrupts.

Abner T. Bowen presented claims, on notes signed by the firm and also by its members, against the estate of the copartnership, which were allowed, and against the individual estate of Alfred McCoy, which were disallowed, by the referee, 'subject only to such right as said claimant may have in said estate as a creditor of the estate of the firm of A. McCoy & Company, bankrupts, after the payment of the individual creditors of the estate of said Alfred McCoy, bankrupt.'

Petition for review was filed and the matter certified to the district court for the district of Indiana, by which the decision and order of the referee were approved and affirmed. Thereupon the case was carried by appeal to the circuit court of appeals for the seventh circuit, which reversed the judgment of the district court and remanded the cause 'with instructions. . . to allow the claim as a debt against the individual estate of Alfred McCoy, to be paid therefrom ratably with other creditors of that estate to the extent that such debt is not paid in the administration of the estate of the firm of McCoy & Company.' 80 C. C. A. 60, 150 Fed. 106.

An appeal to this court was allowed by a judge of the circuit court of appeals, and the case having been docketed here was submitted on a motion to dismiss or affirm.

Messrs. Harry R. Kurrie, Frank Foltz, and Simon P. Thompson for appellant.

Mr. M. Winfield for appellee.

Mr. Chief Justice Fuller delivered the opinion of the court: