Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 3.djvu/95

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88 FEDERAL REPORTER. �are to be read together, so far as they are in pari, maferia. It seems to us their obvions meaning is that the federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction of all matters and proceedings strictly in bankruptcy ; that they have concurrent jurisdiction with the state courts of actions which are plenary or ancillary to the proceedings in bankruptcy, among which are actions by assignees to collect the assets of their bankrupts." �The same question came before the court of appeals of the state of New York, in Kidder v. Horrohin, 72 N. Y. 159, in which that court said : "It is conceded that prior to 1874 state courts had concurrent jurisdiction with the federal courts in actions by assignees in bankruptcy, and cases aris- ing under the bankrupt act. This is conclusively settled by adjudication both in the federal and state courts. It is now accepted as the general rule upon the subject that state courts have concurrent jurisdiction with the federal courts in cases arising under the constitution, laws or treaties of the United States, unless excluded by express provisions, or from the nature of the partioular case, By section 1 of the bankrupt act, as originally enacted, March 2, 1867, the district courts of the United States were constituted courts of bankruptcy, with original jurisdiction in their respective districts in all matters and proceedings in bankruptcy, and with authority to hear and adjudicate upon the same aecording to the pro- visions of the act. The section declares that the jurisdiction shall extend to certain enumerated cases; among others, 'to the collection of all the assets of the bankrupt.' In constru- ing this section it has been held that, as jurisdiction in bank- ruptcy was statutory, it was necessarily exclusive in the courts which were designated as courts of bankruptcy, and vested with jurisdiction in bankrupt proceedings by the bankrupt act. But it was also held that the declaration in the same section that the jurisdiction of the district courts should ex- tend to the collection of all of the assets of the bankrupt, did not exclude the jurisdiction of the state courts in actions by the assignee to recover the assets of the bankrupt. �"The first section of the bankrupt act was amended by the act of congresB, appr'oved Juhe 22, 187e, by adding thereto ����