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569 F.2d 398

Docket No. 77-2750

King v. Gilbert

Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals

Decided March 10, 1978

Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals · decided 1978-03-10

2 counsel of record

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“The appellant [trustee] claims that under Georgia law the tax refund could not be assigned because it was not property in existence at the time of the assignment. That is an incomplete statement of the law of Georgia. In an equity proceeding, such as bankruptcy, the assignment of a contingent right will be enforced. When the contingency is realized, the right to the property attaches as of the time of the assignment.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Watson Insurance Agency, Inc. v. Chipman-Union, Inc. (In Re Chipman-Union, Inc.)

Relies on Isbell Enterprises, Inc. v. Citizens Casualty Co. of New York · Segal v. Rochelle · Oscar C. Kolb, Bankrupt v. Robert A. Berlin, Trustee

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Opinion by Per Curiam · Decided 1978-03-10

How this case has been cited

Cited by 16 later decisions — most recently February 2005

3 federal appellate ·

1001978198019902000decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Summary Calendar.*

United States Court of Appeals,
Fifth Circuit.

March 10, 1978.

Frank B. Wilensky, Charles E. Lamkin, Atlanta, Ga., for plaintiff-appellant.

Floyd E. Siefferman, Jr., Atlanta, Ga., for defendant-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

Before MORGAN, CLARK and TJOFLAT, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:

¶1

This case is affirmed on the basis of the district court's opinion, reported at 445 F.Supp. 479 (N.D.Ga.1978), with the following additional observations. The appellant claims that the federal anti-assignment statute renders the assignment of the tax refund invalid. This is erroneous. The Supreme Court in Segal v. Rochelle, 382 U.S. 375, 86 S.Ct. 511, 517, 15 L.Ed.2d 428 (1966), has stated that section 203 was enacted to protect the federal government from conflicting claims and that "between the (private) parties effect might still be given to an assignment that failed to comply with the statute." The appellant claims that under Georgia law the tax refund could not be assigned because it was not property in existence at the time of the assignment. That is an incomplete statement of the law of Georgia. In an equity proceeding, such as bankruptcy, the assignment of a contingent right will be enforced. When the contingency is realized, the right to the property attaches as of the time of the assignment. Cf. Kolb v. Berlin, 356 F.2d 269, 272 (5th Cir. 1966) (and Georgia cases cited).

¶2

AFFIRMED.

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