Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 6.djvu/603

 IN BE HTDIi. 69I �iio vested right. The right oi &'^bona Jide purchaser 'without notice bas not intervened. Thete has been a wilful wrestin'g of the action of the court by unlawful means, and the peroon whowas a partyto and an actor in the transaction cannotbe heard to claim that he can profit by the transaction, or that the court should not be allowed to re-instate itself in the po* sition in which it was before the Unlawful transaction tpok place. The power existing to set aside the deed and treat it as if it had never been executed, to sweep it away as a clond on the title of the court and its officer, to restore the integ- rity of the action of the court and its ofificer, does not de- tract from the vigor or efficacy of the power that it is set in motion by a person against whom the deed operates injuri- ously. No one is ever likely to complain of the wrongful act, «xcept a person aggrieved thereby. A person in the posses- sion of land, and claiming title thereto, and who has been sued, or is threatened to be sued, on the deed, in respect tO such land, has a sufficient interest in the matter to require the holder of the deed, holding it under the circumstances stated, to answer an application to the court, made by such person, to set aside the deed. Of course this is to be done on a proper petition by such person, with an opportunity to the holder of the deed to answer it, and to meet the proof s of the applicant, and to put in proofs himself, aocording to the usual procedure in a litigation. �Nor is there any good reason why this should not be done by a petition, with the usual forms thereunder, in an equity proceeding, but in a summary way, as distinguished from a plenary suit by bill in equity; inother words, in the form of proceedings by petition in the course of a proceeding in bank- xuptcy. �By section 6 of the act of 1841, it is provided that the juris- diction of the district court shall extend "to ail aots, matters, and things to be done under and in virtue of the bankruptcy, until the final distribution and settlement of the estate of the bankrupt, and the elose of the proceedings in bankruptey." The act of March 3, 1843; (5 St. at Large, 614,)' repeal- ing the act of 1841, provides that the' repealing act "shall ��� �