In re Thorp

1. Bankruptcy — Secured Claims — Validity op Security — Record—Rights op Trustee. Bankr. Act July 1, 1898, c. 541, § 70a, 30 Stat. 565 [U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 3451], provides that the trustee in bankruptcy shall be vested by operation of law with the title of the bankrupt to property which, prior to the filing of the petition, he could have by any means transferred, or which might have been levied on and sold by any judicial process against him. Section 67a, 30 Stat. 564 [U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 3449], provides that claims which, for want of record, would not have been valid liens as against the claims of creditors of the bankrupt, shall not be liens against his estate; and section 67d declares that liens given or accepted in good faith, and not in contemplation of or in any fraud of the act, and for a present consideration, which have been recorded according to law, if record is necessary to impart notice, shall not be affected by the act. Held, that though, under section 70a, the title acquired by a bankrupt’s trustee was only that held by the bankrupt at the time of the filing of the petition, yet where a lien on certain of the bankrupt’s property was void as to any of his creditors under the state law by reason of a failure to record the same, such lien was void as to the trustee, under sections 67a, 67d, as to which he occupied the position of a bona fide purchaser for value.

In Bankruptcy. On objection of the trustee in bankruptcy to the allowance of any part of the claim of the John L. Roper Lumber Company as a secured claim.