United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

White v. Cotzhausen, 129 U.S. 329 (1889)

White v. Cotzhausen

No. 129

Argued December 13-14, 1888

Decided January 28, 1889

129 U.S. 329

APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED

STATES FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS

Syllabus

The Voluntary Assignment Act of the Illinois of 1877, which went into effect July 1, 1877, was intended to secure equality of right among all the creditors of the debtor making the assignment, and was a remedial act, to be liberally construed.

In Illinois, the surrender by an insolvent debtor of the dominion over his entire estate, with an intent to evade the operation of the Voluntary Assignment Act of that state, and the transfer of the whole or substantially the whole of his property to a part of his creditors in order to give them a preference over other creditors, whether made by one instrument or more and whatever their form may be, operates as an assignment under that act, the benefit of which may be claimed by any unpreferred creditor who will take appropriate steps in a court of equity to enforce the equality contemplated by it.

Page 129 U. S. 330