Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 6.djvu/179

 WAIiD V. WEHIi. ' 167 �position as partner conferred on him no ageney for Gabriel Netter to put Gabriel into bankruptcy, except by following the course presoribed by general order No. 18 in bankruptcy; that the adjudication can be assailed collaterally in this suit becauseit appears on the face of the bankruptcy papers that there was no jurisdiction over the person of Gabriel Netter, and no juriadiction over the copartnership or its property; and that the proceedings were at most valid only in respect to Albert Netter and his individual debts and assets, and the plaintiff can at most have relief in respect only to the indi- vidual property of Albert which went into the banda of the defendant. �For the plaintiff it is contended that the only jurisdietional requisites prescribed by sections 5014, 5015, and 5016 are residence, owing debts, and application by a petition ad- dressed and setting forth as specified, and having the pre- scribed schedule and inventory annexed ; that there is noth- ing in the statute which requires the petition to be signed or verified by the debtor personally; that section 5014 provides that if the person specified shall apply by a petition addressed and setting forth as specified, and shall annex to his petition a schedule and inventory in compliance with sections 5015 and 5016, "the filing of such petition shall be an act of bankruptcyi and such petitioner shall be adjudged a bank- rupt;" and that the provision of section 6017, that "the schedule and inventory must be verified by the oath of the petitioner," and that of section 5018, requiring an oath of allegiance by a petitioner who is a citizen, are not essentials of the jurisdiction, because tbey are not found in any one of the three sections preceding section 5017. �There is nothing in the bankruptcy statute vrhich requires that a voluntary petition shall be signed or verified by a debtor in person in order to give the court jurisdiction of the proceeding. Many of the considerations discussed by Judge Woodruff, in In re Raynor, (11 Blatchf. 43,) in ref- erence to -whether a petition in involuntary bankruptcy must be signed and verified by the creditor in person, apply to the present question. This is not a direct proceeding to ��� �