Newman v. Fisher

Robinson, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. An attachment was issued on judgment recovered by the appellant against “The Baltimore County Dairy Association,” and laid in the hands of the appellee, as garnishee. ²⁶² The garnishee pleads, that prior to the issuing of the attachment, the Association had been duly declared and adjudged to be a bankrupt by the District Court of the United States for the State of Maryland, and that the funds in question are held by him as assignee in bankruptcy. To this plea the appellant replies that the Association had been adjudicated a bankrupt by the District Court, upon a petition filed by an officer of said Association, authorized to do so by a vote of the directors, and not by the vote of a majority of the corporators, at a meeting called for that purpose. To this replication the garnishee demurred, and this appeal is taken from the judgment of the Court sustaining the demurrer.

The appellant contends that the District Court had no jurisdiction to adjudicate the Association a bankrupt, because the bankrupt Act of 1867 requires the petition to be filed by a person authorized by a vote of a majority of the corporators, at a meeting called for that purpose. Assuming this construction to'be correct, without, however, so deciding, the question is, whether the property in the hands of the assignee in bankruptcy is liable at the instance of creditors to the attachment laws of this State. The Bankrupt Act of 1867 was passed by Congress in pursuance of Section 8, Article 1, of the Constitution of the United States. By that section full power is conferred upon Congress over the subject of bankruptcy, with the single qualification, that the laws passed in pursuance thereof shall be uniform throughout the United States.

The first section of the Act of 1867, provides that the several District Courts of the U. States shall have original jurisdiction in proceedings in bankruptcy, and this is followed by a general provision extending such