Bardes v. Hawarden Bank‪.‬

This was a bill in equity, filed April 28, 1899, in the District Court of the United States for the Northern District of Iowa, sitting in bankruptcy, by Fred Bardes, a citizen of Iowa, as trustee in bankruptcy of the estate of Frank T. Walker, (who had by that court been adjudged a bankrupt upon his own petition,) against the First National Bank of Hawarden, Iowa, a corporation created and existing under the acts of Congress relating to national banks, and against citizens of Iowa and of South Dakota, to set aside a conveyance of goods, of the value of $3500, alleged to have been made by the bankrupt, within four months before the institution of the proceedings in bankruptcy, to the defendants, and to compel them to account for the goods or their proceeds, on the ground that the conveyance was in fraud of the provisions of the Bankrupt Act of July 1, 1898, and in fraud of the creditors of the bankrupt. The defendants demurred to the bill, upon the ground that the court could not take jurisdiction of the case. The court sustained the demurrer, and entered a final decree dismissing the bill for want of jurisdiction, but without prejudice to the plaintiffs right to institute proceedings in a court having jurisdiction. The plaintiff took an appeal directly to this court; and the District Judge certified that the bill was dismissed for want of jurisdiction only, and, to the end that this court might be fully advised in the premises, stated in his certificate the following questions as having arisen before him, namely: