United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Pfister v. Northern Illinois Finance Corp., 317 U.S. 144 (1942)

Pfister v. Northern Illinois Finance Corp.

Nos. 26 and 27

Argued October 19, 1942

Decided November 16, 1942

317 U.S. 144

Syllabus

1. The time within which a petition may be filed to review an order of a conciliation commissioner fixing rental or granting stay or directing sale is governed by § 39(c) of the Bankruptcy Act, and is fixed at ten days after the entry of the order "or within such extended time as the court may for cause shown allow." P. 317 U. S. 147.

2. The ten-day period for filing a petition to review a commissioner's order under § 39(c) is not extended by a petition for rehearing which is denied by the commissioner without reexamination of the basis of the original order. P. 317 U. S. 150.

3. The ten-day period prescribed by § 39(c) is a limitation on the right of the aggrieved party to appeal, but not a limitation on the jurisdiction of the reviewing court to act. The District Court, in the exercise of sound discretion, can review orders on petitions to review filed after the ten-day period has run. P. 317 U. S. 152.

4. In this case, the commissioner entertained out-of-time petitions to rehear orders fixing rental, granting stay, and directing sale, and denied the petitions upon the ground that they were inadequate to induce a reexamination of the merits of the orders they sought to reopen. Held, on the facts of this case, that the District Court did not err in refusing an out-of-time review of the merits of the original orders. P. 317 U. S. 153.

123 F.2d 543 affirmed.

Certiorari, 315 U.S. 795, to review a judgment of the Circuit Court of Appeals which affirmed orders of the District Court en banc dismissing, for want of jurisdiction, petitions to review orders of a conciliation commissioner.

Page 317 U. S. 145