value payable to himself, his estate, or personal representatives, he may, within thirty days after the cash surrender value has been ascertained and stated to the trustee by the company issuing the same, pay or secure to the trustee the sum so ascertained and stated, and continue to hold, own, and carry such policy free from the claims of the creditors participating in the distribution of his estate under the bankruptcy proceedings, otherwise the policy shall pass to the trustee as assets; and (6) rights of action arising upon contracts or from the unlawful taking or detention of, or injury to, his property.

b All real and personal property belonging to bankrupt estates shall be appraised by three disinterested appraisers; they shall be appointed by, and report to, the court. Real and personal property shall, when practicable, be sold subject to the approval of the court; it shall not be sold otherwise than subject to the approval of the court for less than seventy-five per centum of its appraised value.

c The title to property of a bankrupt estate which has been sold, as herein provided, shall be conveyed to the purchaser by the trustee.

d Whenever a composition shall be set aside, or discharge revoked, the trustee shall, upon his appointment and qualification, be vested as herein provided with the title to all of the property of the bankrupt as of the date of the final decree setting aside the composition or revoking the discharge.

-may avoid cer

-recovery of property.

e The trustee may avoid any transfer by the bankrupt of his property which any creditor of such bank- tain, transfers, etc. rupt might have avoided, and may recover the property so transferred, or its value, from the person to whom it was transferred, unless he was a bona fide holder for value prior to the date of the adjudication. Such property may be recovered or its value collected from whoever may have received it, except a bona fide holder for value. For the purpose of such recovery any court of bankruptcy as herein before defined, and any State court which would have had jurisdiction if bankruptcy had not intervened, shall have concurrent jurisdiction.

f Upon the confirmation of a composition offered by a bankrupt, the title to his property shall thereupon revest in him.

Sec. 71. That the clerks of the several district courts of the United States shall prepare and keep in their respective offices complete and convenient indexes of all petitions and discharges in bankruptcy heretofore or

Title revested on confirming compo sition.

Indexes to be

kept.

search to be issued.

hereafter filed in the said courts, and shall, when reCertificates of quested so to do, issue certificates of search certifying as to whether or not any such petitions or discharges have been filed; and said clerks shall be entitled to receive for such certificates the same fees as now allowed by law for certificates as to judgments in said courts: Provided, That said bankruptcy indexes and dockets shall at all times be open to inspection and examination by all persons or corporations without any fee or charge therefor.

Referee and trustee not to be allowed further compensation.

Force and effect.

Sec. 72. That neither the referee, receiver, marshal, nor trustee shall in any form or guise receive, nor shall the court allow him, any other or further compensation for his services than that expressly authorized and prescribed in this Act.

THE TIME WHEN THIS ACT SHALL GO INTO
EFFECT.

a This Act shall go into full force and effect upon its

-petition for passage: Provided, however, That no petition for volun

voluntary bank

ruptcy.

-involuntary.

Cases pending under State laws.

tary bankruptcy shall be filed within one month of the passage thereof, and no petition for involuntary bankruptcy shall be filed within four months of the passage thereof.

b Proceedings commenced under State insolvency laws before the passage of this Act shall not be affected by it.

VII

GENERAL ORDERS AND FORMS IN BANKRUPTCY ADOPTED AND ESTABLISHED BY THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES NOVEMBER 28, 1898.

OCTOBER TERM, 1898.

172 U. S. 653 as amended Dec. 11, 1905.

In pursuance of the powers conferred by the Constitution and laws upon the Supreme Court of the United States, and particularly by the act of Congress approved July 1, 1898, entitled "An act to establish a uniform system of bankruptcy throughout the United States," it is ordered, on this 28th day of November, 1898, that the following rules be adopted and established as general orders in bankruptcy, to take effect on the first Monday, being the second day, of January, 1899. And it is further ordered that all proceedings in bankruptcy had before that day, in accordance with the act last aforesaid, and being in substantial conformity either with the provisions of these general orders, or else with the general orders established by this court under the bankrupt act of 1867 and with any general rules or special orders of the courts in bankruptcy, stand good, subject, however, to such further regulation by rule or order of those courts as may be necessary or proper to carry into force and effect the bankrupt act of 1898 and the general orders of this court.

I.
DOCKET.

The clerk shall keep a docket, in which the cases shall be entered and numbered in the order in which they are commenced. It shall contain a memorandum of the filing of the petition and of the action of the court thereon, of the reference of the case to the referee, and of the transmission by him to the clerk on his certified record of the proceedings, with the dates thereof, and a memorandum of all proceedings in the case except those duly entered on the referee's certified record aforesaid. The docket shall be arranged in a manner convenient for reference, and shall at all times be open to public inspection.

II.

FILING OF PAPERS.

The clerk or the referee shall indorse on each paper filed with him the day and hour of filing, and a brief statement of its character.

III.

PROCESS.

All process, summons and subpœnas shall issue out of the court, under the seal thereof, and be tested by the clerk; and blanks, with the signature of the clerk and seal of the court, may, upon application, be furnished to the referees.

IV.

CONDUCT OF PROCEEDINGS.

Proceedings in bankruptcy may be conducted by the bankrupt in person in his own behalf, or by a petitioning or opposing creditor; but a creditor will only be allowed to manage before the court his individual interest. Every party may appear and conduct the proceedings by attorney, who shall be an attorney or counselor authorized to practice in the circuit or district court. The name of the attorney or counsellor, with his place of business, shall be entered upon the docket, with the date of the entry. All papers or proceedings offered by an attorney to be filed shall be indorsed as above required, and orders granted on motion shall contain the name of the party or attorney making the motion. Notices and orders which are not, by the act or by these general orders, required to be served on the party personally may be served upon his attorney.

V.

FRAME OF PETITIONS.

All petitions and the schedules filed therewith shall be printed or written out plainly, without abbreviation or interlineation, except where such abbreviation and interlineation may be for the purpose of reference.

VI.

PETITIONS IN DIFFERENT DISTRICTS.

In case two or more petitions shall be filed against the same individual in different districts, the first hearing shall be had in the district in which the debtor has his domicil, and the petition may be amended by inserting an allegation of an act of bankruptcy committed at an earlier date than that first alleged, if such earlier act is charged in either of the other petitions; and in case of two or more petitions against the same partnership in different courts, each having jurisdiction over the case, the petition first filed shall be first heard, and may be amended by the insertion of an allegation of an earlier act of bankruptcy than that first alleged, if such earlier act is charged in either of the other petitions; and, in either case.

the proceedings upon the other petitions may be stayed until an adjudication is made upon the petition first heard; and the court which makes the first adjudication of bankruptcy shall retain jurisdiction over all proceedings therein until the same shall be closed. In case two or more petitions shall be filed in different districts by different members of the same partnership, for an adjudication of the bankruptcy of said partnership, the court in which the petition is first filed, having jurisdiction, shall take and retain jurisdiction over all proceedings in such bankruptcy until the same shall be closed; and if such petitions shall be filed in the same district, action shall be first had upon the one first filed. But the court so retaining jurisdiction shall, if satisfied that it is for the greatest convenience of parties in interest that another of said courts should proceed with the cases, order them to be transferred to that court.

VII.

PRIORITY OF PETITIONS.

Whenever two or more petitions shall be filed by creditors against a common debtor, alleging separate acts of bankruptcy committed by said debtor on different days within four months prior to the filing of said petitions, and the debtor shall appear and show cause against an adjudication of bankruptcy against him on the petitions, that petition shall be first heard and tried which alleges the commission of the earliest act of bankruptcy; and in case the several acts of bankruptcy are alleged in the different petitions to have been committed on the same day, the court before which the same are pending may order them to be consolidated, and proceed to a hearing as upon one petition; and if an adjudication of bankruptcy be made upon either petition, or for the commission of a single act of bankruptcy, it shall not be necessary to proceed to a hearing upon the remaining petitions, unless proceedings be taken by the debtor for the purpose of causing such adjudication to be annulled or vacated.

VIII.

PROCEEDINGS IN PARTNERSHIP CASES.

Any member of a partnership, who refuses to join in a petition to have the partnership declared bankrupt, shall be entitled to resist the prayer of the petition in the same manner as if the petition had been filed by a creditor of the partnership, and notice of the filing of the petition shall be given to him in the same manner as provided by law and by these rules in the case of a debtor petitioned against; and he shall have the right to appear at the time fixed by the court for the hearing of the petition, and to make proof, if he can, that the partnership is not insolvent or has not committed an act of bankruptcy, and to make all defences which any debtor proceeded against is entitled to take by the provisions of the act; and in case an adjudication of bankruptcy is made upon the petition,