110 F. 736 | D. Mass. | 1900
In these cases the creditors seeking to prove have, according to the decision in Re Ft. Wayne Electric Corp., 3 Am. Bankr. R. 634, 99 Fed. 400, received preferences, unless the fact that the payments were received more than four months before the petition was filed takes them out of the scope of the decision. It was there held that a preference must be surrendered before the creditor could prove, even though he had no cause to believe that a preference was intended. The decision went largely upon the ground that the preference to be surrendered was not that limited in section 60b, but that described more generally in clause “a.” This contains no mention of a time 'limit. A literal construction of sections 57g and 60a makes them include preferences given and received beyond the four-months period, and this literal construction is confirmed by an examination of earlier drafts of the existing act. Section 69 of the original Torrey bill, which dealt with preferences, provided in its first paragraph that a respondent shall be deemed to have given a preference if he has within four months, etc. The second paragraph of the same section provided that if a bankrupt shall have given any preference, and the person receiving such preference shall have had reasonable cause to believe that a fraud on the act was intended, the preference shall be voidable. The fifth clause of section 72 of the Torrey bill provided that the claims of creditors who have received preferences shall not be allowed until the preference is surrendered. Under these provisions, plainly, the preference to be surrendered