Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 6.djvu/602

 690 FEDJBHAL BBPOBTEB. �the petition of. such a party as the one specified ; that such party is not legally entitled to call on the respondent to an- swer ; that such party is a stranger, and bas no right to intervene, not being a creditoFi^and having no interest in aug- menting the fund, or in its distribution; and that the dis- charge of the bankrupt and the non-existence of assets for distribution amount to a close of the proceedings in bank- ruptcy, and terminate the power of the court in bankruptcy over tiie case. �Before adjourning the above question the district judge expres&ed bis views in a written decision on the question. He held that the party applying had such an interest in the matter that he could maintain the petition ; that he was not a mere stranger, asking to have the act vacated on grounds of publie policy, but appeared as a party whose rights were injuriously aflfected by the act of the ofiScer of the court; that the court had power to relieve him if he made out his case ; and that the proceeding in bankruptcy had not reached its unal consummation bo long as there remained any order, decree, or action for the court, in the proper and usual exercise of the jurisdiction in like «ases, to enter or to take, or any redress or ielief to be giyen to any party or peraon properly applying to the court therefor in the case.* �The inherent power exists in every court to set aside a deed which its officer bas given, gratuitiously and without consideration, for no value ex<iept a fee to the officer, where the deed was given improvidently, irregularly, or without due authority, or where the deed was procured to be executed by imposition and fraudulent praetices on the court, or where it was designedly so drawn as to be a grant in excess of, or vary- ing in material particulars from, the order of the court under which it purports to be executed, while the deed is stillin the hands of th« party who procured it from the officer, such party having procured it under the cireumstances above stated, and having notice when he so procured it that the irregularities and defecls above referred to existed. ■ �There isino good faith in such a transaction ; no purchase, �*Soe Jii^re //y(i?, 3 Fed. Rep. SSa. ��� �