Leonard

Samuel R. Bennett, appellee herein, on December 22, 1938, filed in the District Court of the United States for the District of Oregon a “Debtor’s Petition for Composition or Extension under Section 75, Act of March 3, 1933.” The petition was attested by the debtor and was accompanied by the requisite schedules and oaths. On December 31, 1938, appellant C. H. Leonard, who, as second mortgagee, is a secured creditor of the debtor, filed in the lower court a motion to dismiss the petition of the debtor on the ground, in particular, that the debtor was not a farmer within the meaning of the Farmer-Debtor Act (Section 75 of the Bankruptcy Act, 11 U.S.C.A. § 203 ).

The District Court, on January 25, 1939, made an order referring said motion to Richard E. Kriesien, Conciliation Commissioner for Harney County, Oregon, for consideration. After a hearing the commissioner concluded that the debtor was not a farmer, as that term is defined in Section 75 of the Act.

On March 27, 1939, the debtor filed a proposal for composition and extension, and on the same date also filed his petition for review of the finding of the Conciliation Commissioner, alleging that the evidence was sufficient to…