232 F. 440 | 6th Cir. | 1916
This appeal is from an order of the court below directing the receivers to deliver and surrender to the administrator $608.40 upon his release to them of a compromised claim for personal injuries resulting in the death of the administrator’s decedent, James Brown, prior to the receivership and through alleged negligence of the railway company. The order was based upon undisputed facts which were brought to the attention of the court in the form of a motion, in effect an intervention, filed in the receivership proceeding. On June
On the next day, July 2d, and prior to 11a. m., written forms of application and entry for presentation to the probate' court and a written form of release of claim to the railway company were agreed on by the administrator for the estate and one of the counsel and the general claim agent for the railway. The claim agent at the time notified the administrator to call with the release and receive the money, and the agent’s authority to bind the company is not denied. The application was thereupon filed in the probate court and the entry approving the settlement endorsed for record by the probate judge. At 9 o’clock a. m. of that day (July 2d) the bill of complaint in the receivership case was filed in the court below; at 9:45 o’clock the answer of the railway was filed, admitting the allegations of the bill, consenting to the appointment of a receiver and to his taking possession of and operating the railway property; and at 11:15 o’clock the receivers were appointed. The District Judge states in his opinion:
“Both the bill of complaint and the answer were printed; the former with, the exhibit filed with it, consisted of 92 pages. The preparation of the bill and answer, with the printing thereof, must have occupied several days.”
On the same day, though after appointment of the receivers, the administrator presented the release to the claim agent of the railway, who declined payment on the ground that receivers had been appointed and the company ordered to pay' over to them all funds in its possession. This was the first information the administrator received of such appointment, and prior to this time he had no intimation that any such action was contemplated. The company had ample funds on the dates before mentioned to meet the sum so agreed to be paid, and, except for the order appointing the receivers, the claim agent had authority to pay the money.
It is true that, subject to some exceptions not here important, the order of appointment extended to all the property of the company, including “cash in banks, on deposit and in hand, money,” etc.; also thát the order does not in terms empower the receivers to pay such a claim as this; but the last paragraph of the order is as follows:
“And it is further ordered that any party in interest may apply to this court for further directions with reference to the property and business aforesaid.”
The intervention was filed August 6, 1914, and the order in dispute was entered January 29, 1915. The grounds upon which the order was sought in substance were: (1) That the court had power to grant
The order is affirmed, with costs.