Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 4.djvu/816

 rSCEBAL BEFOBTEB. �There being tlien no warrant in the bankrupt act to Justify an adjudication in bankruptey against the individual estate of a deceased person, can such proceedings be sustained against his estate by means of a proceeding against the late firm, of which the deceased was a member ? �The same lack of authority meets us here. There ia abso- lutely no expression in the bankrupt act which warrants the assumption that the bankrupt court can take jurisdiction over the individual estate of a deceased pairtner. The law does not in terms confer jurisdiction over the assets of a partner- ship, one of whose members is dead. Hence it bas been held that if a firm is dissolved by the death of one of the part- ners, the executors of the deceased partner cannot be brought iuto bankruptey. In re Stevens, 1 Saw. 397, 5 B. R. 112. �And if the administrator of the deceased partner has given the necessary bond and taken charge of the partnership prop- erty the district court may, in its discretion, even refuse to adjudge the partnership bankrupt. In re Daggett, S Dill. 83, and 8 B. E. 433. �I conclude, therefore, that over the individual estate of Jones the bankrupt court acquired no jurisdiction by this pro- ceeding in bankruptey. Nor is this decision to be overtumed by the fact that the executors of Joues were not required, under the ternis of the will, and by the laws of Texas, to account to the probate court. If they had been purely trus- tees, deriving nO authority whatever from the probate court, the estate committed to them could not be drawn into bank- ruptey. The bankrupt law makes no provision for the bank- ruptey of trust estates, exeept by proceedings aguinst the cestui que trust. The only reference to trust property is the provision that "no property held by the bankrupt in trust shall pass by the asaignment." �An indispensable requisite to an adjudication in bank- ruptey is the existence of a person who owns, in his own right, either severally or jointly with another, property which it is the purpose of the adjudicant to bring into the bankrupt court. In the case of the private property of a deceased partner there is no person in esse against whom the proceed- ����