with intent unlawfully to delay or defraud his or her creditors, depart from the state in which such person usually resides, or remain absent therefrom, or conceal him or herself therein, or keep his or her house, so that he or she cannot be taken, or served with process, or willingly or fraudulently procure him or herself to be arrested, or his or her lands, goods, money or chattels to be attached, sequestered, or taken in execution, or shall secretly convey his or her goods out of his or her house, or conceal them to prevent their being taken in execution, or make, or cause to be made, any fraudulent conveyance of his or her lands, or chattels, or make or admit any false or fraudulent security, or evidence of debt, or being arrested for debt, or having surrendered him or herself in discharge of bail, shall remain in prison two months, or more, or escape therefrom, or whose lands or effects being attached by process issuing out of, or returnable to, any court of common law, shall not, within two months after written notice thereof, enter special bail and dissolve the same, or in districts in which attachments are not dissolved by the entry of special bail, being arrested for debt after his or her lands and effects, or any part thereof, have been attached for a debt or debts amounting to one thousand dollars or upwards, shall not, upon notice of such attachment, give sufficient security for the payment of what may be recovered in the suit in which he or she shall be arrested, at or before the return day of the same, to be approved by the judge of the district, or some judge of the court out of which the process issued upon which he is arrested, or to which the same shall be returnable, every such person shall be deemed and adjudged a bankrupt: Provided, that no person shall be liable to a commission of bankruptcy, if the petition be not preferred, in manner herein after directed, within six months after the act of bankruptcy committed.
Proceedings to obtain a commission of bankruptcy.Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the judge of the district court of the United States, for the district where the debtor resides, or usually resided at the time of committing the act of bankruptcy, upon petition, in writing, against such person or persons being bankrupt, to him to be exhibited by any one creditor, or by a greater number, being partners, whose single debt shall amount to one thousand dollars, or by two creditors, whose debts shall amount to one thousand five hundred dollars, or by more than two creditors, whose debts shall amount to two thousand dollars, shall have power, by commission under his hand and seal, to appoint such good and substantial persons, being citizens of the United States, and resident in such district, as such judge shall deem proper, not exceeding three, to be commissioners of the said bankrupt, and in case of vacancy or refusal to act, to appoint others from time to time, as occasion may require:[1] Provided always, that before any- ↑ By the 14th section of the act of April 29, 1802, entitled, “An act to amend the judicial system of the United States,” the commissions in bankruptcy issued by the district judge were to be directed to general commissioners appointed by the President of the United States in each district.
under this conveyance. By the Court—The decisions of the English courts, abundantly prove that a possibility, whether belonging to the husband or the wife, would not pass to the assignees of the husband, on his becoming bankrupt, if it were not for the strong language of the statutes of bankruptcy. Krumbaar v. Burt, 2 Wash. C. C. R. 406.
The possibility held by B., under the will of A. H., formed no part of his estate to which he was entitled in law or equity, of which the commissioners could take possession under the 5th section of the bankrupt law of the United States; and, therefore, they could not transfer it to the assignees of the bankrupt, under the provisions of the 6th section. Ibid. The provisions of the English bankrupt laws, and those of the bankrupt law of the United States, differ in relation to the contingent interests of the bankrupt; and it is clear, that by the most liberal construction of the law, the interest of the husband in the estate of his wife, under the will of A. H., did not pass to the assignees. Ibid. The provisions of the 13th section of the bankrupt law of the United States, do not affect this question; they do not require an assignment of contingent interests, but relate to their disclosure by the bankrupt. Ibid. So exclusively have bankrupt laws operated on traders, that it may well be doubted, whether an act of Congress, subjecting to such a law every description of persons within the United States, would comport with the spirit of the powers vested in them in relation thereto. Per Livingston, J. in Adams v. Storey, Paine’s C. C. R. 79.