United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Southern Electric Co. v. Stoddard, 269 U.S. 186 (1925)

Southern Electric Company v. Stoddard

No. 42

Submitted October 14, 1925

Decided November 23, 1925

269 U.S. 186

Syllabus

In proceedings brought by the New York Superintendent of Insurance to liquidate the business of a New York insurance company, the claim of a creditor who had recovered judgment against the company in a federal court in another state, to payment out of existing assets, was disallowed by the Supreme Court of New York, Special Term, upon the ground that, under the New York insurance law, the claim, having arisen after the date when the property was taken over for liquidation, must be postponed to claims previously arisen. The order of disallowance was affirmed by the Appellate Division. The creditor throughout the proceedings invoked the full faith and credit clause, the contract clause, and the Fourteenth Amendment of the federal Constitution. Held, in view of an interpretation by the New York Court of Appeals:

1. That the order of the Appellate Division was an order entered upon a decision which finally determined an action or special proceeding within § 588, paragraph 1, of the New York Civil Practice Act, and, under that paragraph, because of the constitutional questions involved, was appealable as of right to the court of appeals. P. 269 U. S. 188.

2. Therefore, under § 237, Judicial Code, as amended September 6, 1916, the claimant not having applied to the Court of Appeals, a writ of error from this Court to the Appellate Division would not lie. Id.

Writ of Error to 207 App.Div. (N.Y.) 842, 893, dismissed.

Error to a judgment of the Supreme Court of New York, Appellate Division, which affirmed an order of the Special Term disallowing a judgment creditor's claim against an insurance company in liquidation proceedings.

Page 269 U. S. 187