28 Wash. 35 | Wash. | 1902
The opinion of the court was delivered by
— The relator, Heckman, applied for an alternative writ of prohibition to the superior court of King county. He stated that a suit was pending in the superior court, wherein William Curtis was plaintiff and relator and Hanson were defendants, and Larsen was receiver; that relator was interested beneficially therein; that on the 17th day of January, 1902, relator and Hanson as co-partners, were adjudged bankrupts in the United States district court; that said suit in the superior court was founded upon a claim against said co-partners from which a discharge in bankruptcy could be given, and that said suit was pending at the time of the filing of the petition in bankruptcy. That thereafter, on the 6th day of March, 1902, the said receiver moved the superior court for an order confirming the sale of certain property for the sum of $24,000, which property was owned by relator and Hanson as co-partners and then in the custody of the re
The only inquiry here is into- the jurisdiction of the superior court in the premises. There seems to have been for some time considerable uncertainty in the view of the courts as to the effect .of the enactment of the federal bankruptcy law upon the jurisdiction of the state tribunals when insolvent debtors became involved in such proceedings, but it seems to be now settled that the mere enactr
“It is a mistake to suppose that the Bankrupt Law avoids of its own force all judicial proceedings in the state or other courts the instant one of the parties is adjudged a bankrupt. There is nothing in the act which sanctions such a proposition.....The same courts remain open to him in such contests, and the statute has not divested those courts of jurisdiction in such actions. If it has for certain classes of actions conferred a jurisdiction for the benefit of the assignee in the circuit and district courts of the United States, it is concurrent with and does not divest that of the state courts.”
The duty of the state court is very well expressed by the supreme court of Georgia in Freeman v. Fort, 52 Ga. 371:
“When the assignees of the bankrupts shall make a proper case which will authorize the bankrupt court to enjoin the complainants in the creditors’ bill from proceeding in the state court to have their respective claims and liens adjudicated in that court, and shall obtain the sanction of the bankrupt court for that purpose, then, and not until then, would it be the duty of the state court to turn over to the assignees the assets in its custody, to be*38 administered by tbe bankrupt court. Inasmuch as the state court had acquired the jurisdiction and custody of the defendant’s property and effects for the purposes specified in the creditors’ bill before they were adjudged bankrupts, the assignees cannot accomplish the object sought by them on a mere motion, without first instituting regular proceedings for that purpose in the bankrupt court,”
Upon the facts shown, the superior court is within its jurisdiction, and the writ is denied.
Andebs, Hadley, Fullebton, Mount, Dunbae and White, JJ., concur.