179 F.1d 320 - In re Nelson — 179 F. 320

How this case has been cited

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently December 1936

1 federal appellate · 2 district ·

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

¶1Bankruptcy (§ 407*) — Grounds for Refusal of Discharge — Concealment of Property.

¶2A disposition of bis property by a bankrupt with intent to keep it from his creditors is with intent to hinder, delay, or defraud them, and will bar his right to a discharge.

¶3[Ed. Note. — Eor other cases, see Bankruptcy, Dec. Dig. § 407.*]

¶4In the matter of Eugene Á. Nelson, bankrupt. On application for discharge.

¶5Discharge denied.

¶6Henry T. Hornridge, for bankrupt.

¶8HAND, District Judge.

¶9The question is simply of the existence of an intent “to hinder, delay, or defraud creditors.” Did the bankrupt have such a specific intent ? He intended to take his property and keep it from his creditors. Is that an intent to defraud them? It is an intent to do those things which will result in their being deprived of what was their own, and to deprive them of their own by secreting it is to defraud them.

¶10Of course, it makes no difference that he thought himself justified. In many crimes you must show 'a specific intent; but no one ever heard that, when the intent was once shown, it made the least difference that the defendant thought he had the right to entertain it. The law forbids his entertaining it, and here the law forbids the bankrupt’s entertaining the intent to do what will in fact defraud his creditors.

¶11Report confirmed, and discharge denied, with costs.