Giffin v. Vought

These two appeals by Dorothy C. Giffin, wife of Vere B. Giffin, bankrupt, primarily concern or grow out of her claims to the ownership of certain property alleged by the bankruptcy trustee to be assets of the bankrupt. The first appeal is from the district courts affirmance of an order of a bankruptcy referee expunging the wifes claims against the estate; the second is from the summary judgment granted by the court in the trustees civil action to recover the assets. The property in question consisted of the home of the couple at Garden City, Long Island, a farm located in Indiana, and a deposit in the Hempstead Bank, Hempstead, New York. It is the trustees contention that all three were held by Mrs. Giffin as the "agent, dummy and instrumentality" of the bankrupt and further that the latter two were transferred to her by the bankrupt in fraud of creditors. For a time Mrs. Giffin also had a leasehold on a business property at Port Washington, Long Island, which she subleased to her husband; and in addition she was assignee of a judgment procured by the West Hempstead National Bank against him. The unpaid portion of the judgment and the unpaid rent and water charges on the Port Washington property were the basis of the claims expunged by the referee resulting in the first appeal. The summary judgment in the civil action was granted because the referees findings in this first proceeding were given the effect of res judicata. Hence we first summarize these findings.