235 F. 907 | D. Mass. | 1916
It follows that the learned referee was right in allowing the claim for wages up to the date of bankruptcy as entitled to priority, and his finding in respect thereto is affirmed.
.The claimant had the right to treat the bankruptcy as a breach of the entire contract. In re Swift, 112 Fed. 315, 50 C. C. A. 264 (C. C. A. 1st Cir.). Since the present case was argued, Central Trust Co. v. Chicago Auditorium Ass’n, 240 U. S. 581, 36 Sup. Ct. 412, 60 L. Ed. 811, has been decided, in which it is held that, when bankruptcy constitutes a breach of an executory contract to be performed in the future, damages covering the whole term of the contract are provable. The contract in that case was to pay for certain privileges; in this one it is to pay for personal services. I do not think that the distinction is material. It is true that such services are contingent on the employe’s life, but that fact does not prevent damages for breach of contracts, like the one under consideration, from being proved in actions at law, and I see no good reason why a stricter rule should be applied in bankruptcy.
Notwithstanding the decision in D. Levy & Sons Co. (D. C. Md.) 208 Fed. 479, relied on by the alleged bankrupts, it seems to me that damages for the breach of the contract were provable and that in so ruling the referee was right. A similar result was reached in equity in Isaac McLean Sons Co. v. Butler (D. C, Mass.) 227 Fed. 325 (opinion Dodge, J., Oct. 31, 1914). See, too, Charles W. Miller (D. C. Mass.) 225 Fed. 331.
The orders of the referee are affirmed.