Breit

The judgment here in contest is a judgment of a bankruptcy court for the recovery of money from an unsecured creditor of a bankrupt, found to have been unlawfully paid to him within four months immediately preceding the adjudication in bankruptcy, as a preference over the other unsecured creditors. The contention is that the court below was without jurisdiction of the suit, and that the defendant to it was entitled to a jury trial upon the question as to whether or not the payments received by him from the bankrupt constituted an unlawful preference over the other unsecured creditors.

In view of the record, we do not think there is any merit in the contention. It appears that on the 3d day of October, 1912, Davidson filed in the court below a voluntary petition in bankruptcy; that he was thereafter duly adjudged a bankrupt; that the matter was duly referred by the court to one of the referees in bankruptcy, before whom, on the 19th day of October, 1912, the first meeting of the creditors of the bankrupt was duly and regularly held, at which the complainant in the suit was duly elected trustee of the estate of the bankrupt, duly qualifying as such on the 21st of the same month. It…