Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 9.djvu/294

 HUNKEE V. BING. 279 �into his own banda and is entitled to his legal fees. A duplication of charges, by the payment of full fees to two successive assignees, is not to be tolerated. In re Kurth, 17 N. B. E. 573. A voluntary assignee who accepts the trust, kno'wing from the beginning that it is liable to be set aside as fraudulent and void in bankruptoy, bas not, in strictness, any legal claim to compensation. Under some oireumstances, accordingly, be bas been allowed nothing. Burkholder V, Stump, 4 N. B. E. 597 ; Clark v. Marks, 6 Ben. 275 ; In re Stubbs, 4 N. B. E. 376. In other cases be bas been considered as simply a crediter of the assignors for his services, and put to his pro rata with other creditors. In re Lains, 16 N. B. E. 168. In this district the equitable rule bas been adopted to allow bim reasonable charges for such services and disbursements as have been rendered for the benefit of the general body of creditors by the preservation of the f und to their use, or in the ajdvantageous collection of assets, or conversion of the property into money. Platt y. Archer, 13 Blatchf. 351; Have' meyer v. Loeb,M.S. Dec. 11, 1877, �The cases in which this rule bas been applied, bowever, are the ordinary cases of assignments whicb are valid under the state laws, and are operative as against all individual creditors so as to preserve the estate intact, and defeat the acquirement of any preference by one crediter over another through judgments and executions, and which are voidable only under the bankrupt act at the election of the assignee in bankruptcy in a direct suit for that purpose. Wald V. Wehl, 6 Fed. Eep. 163, 169. Unfortunately for the general cred- itors this aBsigninent is not of that cbaracter. The state law under ■which this assignment was made provided that a verified inventory and schedule of the assets and liabilities of the debtor should be filed by the debtor within 20 day after the assignment, and if that were not done that the assignee might, within 10 days theieafter, make and file such inventory and schedule so far as he can, and if not made by either debtor or assignee within 30 days that the assignment shall be void. �The urm of J. Bear & Sons, the assignors, consisted of three co- partners. Immediately upon the execution of the assignment the assignors and other persons about the store, nine in number, were employed by the respondent in preparing the inventory and sehedules, which be testiues were prepared under bis supervision and the advice of bis counsel. Their preparation occupied two weeks, and they were filed on January 16, 1878. On March 11, 1878, a petition of cred- ■'■■ora was filed in bankruptcy against the firm; the.usual injunotion ��� �