Burlingham v. Crouse’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

7 federal appellate · 3 district · 1 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 16 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““By the terms of the policy he was entitled to receive at the end of the tontine period the cash payment stipulated in the contract. That is a vested contract right, contingent only upon his surviving the tontine period. The right is valuable, increasing in value with each successive payment of premium. The policy, technically, had not a ‘surrender value,’ within the meáning of the proviso; but it had an actual value, and that valuable right was right of property existing in the bankrupt. It is the plain provision of the bankruptcy law that all the estate of the bankrupt shall by operation of law, be vested in the trustee, save such as is specifically excepted by the provisions of the bankruptcy law, or by the law of the domicile of the bankrupt. The language of the provision is comprehensive. Subdivision 5 of section 70a declares that there shall be thus vested in the trustee ‘property which prior to the filing of the petition he could by any means have transferred or which might have been levied upon and sold under .-judicial process against him.’ Then fpliows the proviso• which we have considered. It is clear that this proviso merely defines a certain class of insurance which may be excepted and exempted, by the action of the bankrupt and upon the conditions stated, from the general property which by the law is vested in the 'trustee. In other words the proviso is in the nature of a privilege to the debtor to retain such specified insurance upon yielding to the trustee the”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Partridge v. Andrews

2. ““It is the object of the statute to place in the hands of the trastee, for distribution among the creditors, every dollar which the bankrupt could collect. Therefore, if he has a policy on which money could be collected by sur rendering it, lie must turn over such policy lo tlie trustee who may thereupon surrender and collect. Having done this, there can be, of course, no possible objection to the bankrupt effecting new insurance on his own life, if some friend or relative chooses to assist him to pay the premiums. But his doing so would involve one element of hardship. The old policy may have been taken out many years before, when the assured was a young man and tlie animal premium low; for the new policy a much higher premium may have to be paid, indeed, his condition of health might be such that he could not pass the examination and secure a new policy at all, and thus be unable to secure something for his family in the event of his death. It seems quite apparent from the language of the proviso that Congress was not solicitous to subject the unfortunate bankrupt to any such unnecessary hardship, and so has provided that if there is paid or secured to the trustee for the creditors all that the bankrupt could obtain by surrendering the old policy he may hold and carry such policy.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. In re Judson

3. ““in some instances, the policy is made payable to insured’s estate, so that he retains the power to disposb of its proceeds at will. So, too, sometimes by express stipulation in the contract (as in this case), sometimes by practice of the company, the privilege is given to the insured to surrender his policy at any time (usually after several premiums have been paid) and receive a fixed sum of money in exchange. Such sum is called the ‘cash surrender value' of the policy. Unless such a policy passed to the trustee, the bankrupt could surrender it and himself collect the cash.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Partridge v. Andrews