Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 6.djvu/724

 712 FEDERAL UEPOriTEK. �est, was made as soon as he learned the fact of the sale, and within 18 days after it was made. �W. K. Jennings, as administrator of the estate of John Ste- venson, deoeased, it would seem, is much the largest creditor of the bankrupts, His debt as proved amounts to $32,081.16, while the whole amount of indebtedness proved is something lesB than $80,000. Mr. Jennings is a home creditor, residing within the city of Pittsburgh, and personally well acquainted with most of the real estate in question. Most certainly he was entitled to notice of the application for the order to make the proposed private sale, and such was the view of Ihe assignee, for he testifies that he had requested his counsel to give information to Mr. Jennings, and was under the impres- sion it had been given. But, by some misapprehension, notice was not given Mr. Jennings ; he knew nothing of the application, order, or sale until within three days of the pres- enta,tion of his petition to set aside the sale. �When the assignee stated in his petition for leave to sell to William M. MoElroy that he had "conferred with some of the principal oreditors of said bankrupts, and they advise him to accept said offer, " the court had a right to assume that the assignee had not overlooked the principal home creditor. And, indeed, it is shown that both the assignee and his coun- sel had good reason to believe that Mr. Jennings knew and approved the proposed sale. In that belief the counsel acted. The evidence before the court justifies the conclusion that the price at which McElroy bought is grossly inadequate. Cer- tain it is that authority to make the sale to him at his offer would not have been granted had the facts now shown ap- peared to the court. It now appears that Mr. McElroy was the nominal purchaser only; that he was acting for E. L. Barton, the brother-in-law of A. K. Stevenson, one of the bankrupts, and that Stevenson negotiated with the assignee for the purchase. As the court would not have authorized the sale to McElroy if the facts had been disolosed, it cannot now give its sanction to that sale or permit it to stand. It is, indeed, true, that on the first day of March, 1881, McElroy conveyed the interest he acquired under his deed from the ��� �