144 Iowa 577 | Iowa | 1909
On February 23, 1907, certain creditors of' A. L. Adams began proceedings to have him adjudged a bankrupt under the provisions of the Act of Congress, known as the “Bankruptcy Act” (Act July 1, 1898, chapter 541, 30 Stat. 544 [H. S. Comp. St. 1901, 3418]), and an order adjudging him a bankrupt was procured under date of June 11, 1907. For two and one-half years prior to December 10, 1906, Adams had been in business as the proprietor of a small grocery in Ft. Dodge. lie was a man of small means, and for the purchase of his stock of about $1,800 in value he borrowed the greater part of tire money from the Ft. Dodge National Bank. From the beginning he purchased the greater part of his supplies from the Ft. Dodge Grocery Company, a wholesale dealer in that city. His purchases were made at frequent intervals and in comparatively small amounts on the nominal terms of sixty days’ credit, but he appears to have been granted considerable indulgence, and for much of the time he was indebted to the company in an amount varying from $400 to $800, on which he made frequent small payments. On December 10, 1906, when, as we shall hereinafter note, he sold out the business, he was owing the grocery company.in the neighborhood of $850, and his indebtedness to the bank had been but slightly decreased. These two parties were his principal creditors, but he was owing quite a number of smaller bills, so that his aggregate liabilities of all kinds were somewhere from $2,800 to $3,100. Hp to this date, so far as appears from the record, he had succeeded in maintaining a fair credit, and upon the surface at least there was no. special reason
Some confusion exists in the cases as to the meaning of the phrase ‘having reasonable cause to believe such a person is insolvent.’ Dicta are not wanting which assume that it has the same effect as if it had read ‘having reasonable cause to suspect such a person is insolvent.’ But the two phrases are distinct in meaning and effect. It is
This opinion was quoted and reaffirmed by the same
Moreover, the payment complained of being less than