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39 Ga. 662

Hill v. Fleming

Supreme Court of Georgia

Decided December 15, 1869

Supreme Court of Georgia · decided 1869-12-15

<p>1. The Judge of the Superior Courts has no power by rule, in vacation, to compel an assignee in bankruptcy to turn over to a sheriff of a State Court property of the banlcrupt, which was in the possession of the bankrupt when the assignee took the control of it, but which, it is claimed, had been levied upon by the sheriff by virtue of a fi. fa. issued from a judgment of the State Court, older than the judgment in the Bankrupt Court, by which the defendant in the fi. fa. was declared a bankrupt.</p> <p>2. Under such a state of facts the sheriff’s remedy was by action of trover, or by a proper proceeding in the Bankrupt Court, which has jurisdiction over the assignee.</p>

Decided 1869-12-15

Brown, C. J.

¶11. We are aware of no statute or rule of Court which authorized the Judge to institute such a proceeding and pass such an order, as is complained of in this case. It appears by the evidence that the assignee in bankruptcy found the property, which is the subject of this litigation, in possession of the bankrupt and took possession of it as he did the other property of the bankrupt. He, therefore, became possessed of the property in the regular course off his official duties, and could not be deprived of it by this very summary and irregular proceeding.

¶22. If the sheriff was entitled to the possession of the property, and, from the evidence before us, we incline to the opinion that he was, he had his remedy by action of trover, *664or he might have instituted the proper proceeding in the Bankrupt Court, to which the assignee was amenable, which would have corrected promptly any error or excess of its officer.

¶3Let the judgment be reversed.

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