(DOWNLOAD) "Langham, Langston & Burnett v. Blanchard" by United States Court Of Appeals Fifth Circuit. ~ Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Langham, Langston & Burnett v. Blanchard
- Author : United States Court Of Appeals Fifth Circuit.
- Release Date : January 29, 1957
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 68 KB
Description
Lone Star Sulphur Corporation was organized to exploit a supposed sulphur deposit on land leased to it. Wells had been drilled. No sulphur in paying quantities had been produced. The company had ceased operation. It was without funds and without credit. Efforts of management of the corporation to raise additional money to continue the efforts to produce sulphur had been unsuccessful. Such was the plight of the company on December 20, 1954. On that day the appellant, Langham, Langston & Burnett, a partnership, instituted suit against the company in the district court of Harris County, Texas, and on the following day, December 21, 1954, it caused a writ of attachment to be levied upon property of the corporation.A judgment for the partnership and against the corporation for $7,444.46, which included $900.00 attorneys fees, followed. On March 17, 1955, a levy under execution was made on the property which had been attached and on other property of the corporation. On March 28, 1955, the corporation filed a voluntary petition in bankruptcy. The appellee, T. B. Blanchard, became the bankruptcy trustee. The partnership filed a claim in the bankruptcy proceeding and asserted it as a secured claim by reason of the attachment and levy. The trustee objected to the claim as a secured claim on the grounds that the attachment and levy were made within four months of bankruptcy and that the corporation was insolvent when the attachment and levy were made. Bankruptcy Act, 67, sub. a(1), 11 U.S.C.A. 107, sub. a(1). A hearing on the trustees contest of the claim was held on February 20 and 22, 1956. At that hearing the history of the Lone Star Sulphur Corporation was developed by the testimony of its Treasurer, Charles N. McClendon, and W. G. B. Morrison, its sometime President, Counsel, and Director. Appellant offered the testimony of Clayton Stephenson, a chemical engineer and one of the designers of the bankrupts plant, to prove the value that parts of the bankrupts plant would have if taken down and moved 100 miles. Objection was made and sustained to the testimony on the ground that the witness did not qualify as an expert. Having heard all the evidence the referee determined that the Lone Star Sulphur Corporation was insolvent at the time the lien attached. An order was entered which sustained the trustees contention and relegated the claimant-appellant to the position of an unsecured creditor.