Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 9.djvu/297

 282 FKDEEAL REPORTEE. �From the defendant's account rendered, and from hia testimony, it appears that the lirst two weeks were employed in preparing the inventory and schedules to be filed. As these were useless, and had reference solely to the void statutory proceeding, the expenses so incurred must be disallowed. The salaries of the nine persons thus employed amount to about $175. From January 16th to March 12th, when the injunction in bankruptcy was served, the respondent was busily employed in selling the goods at wholesale and retail to the amount of $8,000, and in collecting accounts, and during that time he personally kept the books. During several days before that they had also been employed in preparing a careful inventory and catalogue of all the remaining goods for an auction sale, designed to be held on the fourteenth of March, for which all the preparations were completed, the sale to be made by Bissel & Wells, auctioneers, on a commission of 6 per cent,, including guaranty. The proceedings for the auction sale, aftet being suspended for several months through the injunction in bankruptcy, were finally resumed upon an order of this court, September 20, 1878, directing the sale to be had under the direction of both assignees, and the sale was accordingly completed in October, 1878, and the respondent collected the moneys. Although the reason for this course, or for the long delay in determining upon it, does not fully appear, I infer that it arose from the peculiar nature of the goods, — a large stock of toys, — and that it was found best for the plaintifE to avail himself of the preparations, facilities, and arrangements which the defendant, aided by the debtors, had already made, or could afford, for the most advantageous disposition of such goods. These arrangements and the sale were made, it is true, before the invalidity of the assignment had been pointed out or adjudicated ; but it was none the less an adoption and employment of the defend- ant's services in part, for which he is consequently entitled to com- pensation down to the close of the sales and commencement of this action on October 31, 1878. Clark v. Marx, 6 Ben. 275. �The amount of these auction sales was about $17,500. For all his services in preparation for and in carrying out these last sales, in connection with the plaintifi, I think the defendant is entitled to one-half the fees of assignees in bankruptcy, to be computed upon that sum; and for his services prier thereto, back to January 16th, when his sales commenced, I think the sum of $350 a reasonable compensation; but his chargea for the nine persons employed two weeks in making the schedules, amounting to $175, as nearly as I can make out, must be disallowed. ��� �