Chichester

We have frequently adverted to the well-established principle that “courts of bankruptcy are essentially courts of equity.”

Judged in accordance with an equitable norm, the individual and corporate manipulations of the appellants herein with reference to the bankrupt’s property, are such as to offend the conscience of a discerning chancellor.

Within the spatial compass of a judicial opinion, it is impossible to trace the appellants’ machinations in detail. We will content ourselves herein in sketching merely the barest outline of the fraudulent scheme.

1. Statement of the Case

The Court below found that by reason of the appellants’ transfers of the bankrupt corporation’s assets from one corporation to another, the bankrupt’s creditors were hindered, delayed, defrauded, and damaged in the sum of $76,315.62, and that by reason of the *499 fraud practiced upon the bankrupt’s creditors, the appellee was entitled to exemplary damages in the sum of $10,000.

From a judgment of $86,315.62 in favor of the appellee, the present appeal has been taken.

2. Statement of Facts

On August 10, 1954, Veraco, Inc., doing business as Airest Mattress Co., filed a voluntary petition in…