Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 9.djvu/399

 384 FEDEJRAL BEPOBTEB. �kept properly, having reference to the purposes of the aet, viz., the ascertainment of all the debtor'a proper assets and liabilities, and the distribution of his property among his honafide creditors. This requirement is not incompatible with casual and unintentional mis- takes. In re White, 2 N. B. E. 590; In re Burgess, 3 N. B. E. 196; In re Jewett, 3 Fed. Eep. 503. �It is sufficient if the entries are enough to determine, with sub- stantial accuracy, the real condition of the debtor's affairs, and fur- nish an intelligible account of his business. In re Solomon, 2 N. B. E. 287, per Grier, J.; In re Archenbrown, 12 N. B. E. 17; In re An- tisdel, 18 N. B. E. 289. It is not the office of book-keeping to fur- nish a complete historical record and a f ull explanation of all business transactions, but only brief memoranda or entries concerning them, and they often require a reference to other writings, documents, let- ters, or contracts, or to facts within the knowledge of the parties con- cemed, for their full explanation or comprehension. In re Townsend, 2 Fed. Eep. 559, 565; In re Brockway, 7 N. B. E. 598. �Additional writings are recognized by the bankrupt act, which re- quires their presentation and delivery to the assignee, (sections 5044, 5110, 5132;) and the bankrupt himseif may be cited and examined under oath whenever required for the further elucidation of his accounts. Section 5086. These provisions would be needless if "proper books of account" alone would furnish full and complete knowledge of the debtor's affairs. To keep "proper books of account" does not, therefore, require the entry of all the details necessary to a full understanding of the matters referred to by the entries. Without such details brief memoranda, when sufficient to exhibit the debtor's "financial condition and course of business," are all that is required. The books, morover, are not required to be kept always posted or bal- anced, nor need the entries be kept up daily. In re George, l'Low. 409. And if caaual omissions are not a sufficient objection, still less can books be held to be improperly kept, when, as here, a few trans- actions complained of, though not entered in all the books, are all entered in at least some of them, and thereby the books themselves afford means for their own rectification. �Upon balancing the books for the short period of the debtors' busi- ness after March Ist, these partial omissions would have been ob- served and doubtless corrected. The expert seems not to have made any endeavor to supply the omissions which the books themselves afforded means of supplying. I do not understand him to testify that he could not ascerfcain from the books, with substantial accuracy, ��� �