Commercial Wholesalers, Inc. v. Investors Commercial Corp.

A petition in involuntary bankruptcy was filed against Commercial Wholesalers, Inc. A petition for arrangement was filed by the corporation immediately alter adjudication. An amended plan of arrangement set up that, after making the payments required thereby, the remaining assets should be returned to the debtor free and clear of demands, and debtor should be discharged. The petition for adoption did not enlarge this provision. The order approving the plan followed the language of the plan. Thereupon, a petition for final decree was filed by debtor, which recited that the debts of the creditors “have been fully settled, satisfied, paid and discharged,” and that the creditors should be forever barred from prosecuting suits or proceedings “against the debtor, its successors, predecessors or assigns,” and this language is also contained in the prayer. Both these phrases are included in the final decree signed by the referee November 12, 1947. Based upon petition for modification of the decree by Investors Commercial Corporation, to which a claim against debtor had been assigned, the referee issued an order to show cause to debtor, and at the hearing found the word “predecessors” in…