United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Cooper v. Dasher, 290 U.S. 106 (1933)

Cooper v. Dasher

No. 30

Argued October 18, 1933

Decided November 6, 1933

290 U.S. 106

Syllabus

A turnover order addressed to the president of a bankrupt corporation who has fraudulently concealed and is withholding the goods, is not to be held invalid for want of a sufficient description if the one given, though general, is clear enough to be understood by him and is as definite as possible under the circumstances. P. 290 U. S. 108.

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The goods in question were part of the stock in trade of a drug business. Their cost had been computed by deducting from the cost of all goods owned by the bankrupt in the life of the business the total amount of sales, less gross profits, and the cost value of the goods that had come to the trustee or receiver. The description in the order was as follows:

"balance of merchandise in the hands of the said R. F. Dasher at the time of bankruptcy at a cost price value of $19,157.66, of a class of merchandise shown by the proofs of claim to have been purchased on the credit of the bankrupt corporation and delivered to it, and of such a

Page 290 U. S. 107

class of merchandise as is usually carried and sold in a retail drug store, but which is not capable of a more specific description, such more specific description being known only to the respondent in this cause."

63 F.2d 749 reversed.

Certiorari, 289 U.S. 720, to review the reversal of an order for the return of concealed goods, in a bankruptcy case.