Scott Publishing Company, a Corporation v. Ralph Rodgers, Trustee in Bankruptcy of Mid-Columbia Publishers, Inc., Bankrupt

This appeal is presented upon an agreed statement in accordance with Rule 76 of the Federal Rules of Civil Proeedure, 28 U.S.C. The order of the district court appealed from confirms the referee’s order dismissing appellant’s petition to the bankruptcy court to compel of the trustee to pay appellant the sum $8,550 from the bankrupt estate on the ground “that the bankrupt estate had been unjustly enriched” to that extent as a result of satisfaction by appellant of a judgment for damages awarded in an action for conversion brought by the trustee against appellant in the courts of the State of Washington.

The claim of unjust enrichment arises from the fact that appellant had assumed a lien for $8,550 on the personal property adjudged to have been converted, and the Washington Supreme Court refused to permit the $8,550 lien to be deducted from the amount found to be the value of the chattel at the time of the conversion. See Crutcher v. Scott Publishing Co., 1953, 42 Wash.2d 89 , 253 P.2d 925 .

As a result, so the argument goes, the trustee stands unjustly enriched to the extent of the lien, with appellant forced to pay the Washington judgment for the full value of the converted…