estate of the bankrupt, unless the court shall, on due notice, order that the right under such levy, judgment, attachment, or other lien shall be preserved for the benefit of the estate; and thereupon the same may pass to and shall be preserved by the trustee for the benefit of the estate as aforesaid. And the court may order such conveyance as shall be necessary to carry the purposes of this section into effect: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall have the effect to destroy or impair the title obtained by such levy, judgment, attachment, or other lien, of a bona fide purchaser for value who shall have acquired the same without notice or reasonable cause for inquiry.

SEC. 68. SET-OFFS AND COUNTERCLAIMS.-a In all cases of mutual debts or mutual credits between the estate of a bankrupt and a creditor the account shall be stated and one debt shall be set off against the other, and the balance only shall be allowed or paid.

b A set-off or counterclaim shall not be allowed in favor of any debtor of the bankrupt which (1) is not provable against the estate; or (2) was purchased by or transferred to him after the filing of the petition, or within four months before such filing, with a view to such use and with knowledge or notice that such bankrupt was insolvent, or had committed an act of bankruptcy.

SEC. 69. POSSESSION OF PROPERTY.-a A judge may, upon satisfactory proof, by affidavit, that a bankrupt against whom an involuntary petition has been filed and is pending has committed an act of bankruptcy or has neglected or is neglecting, or is about to so neglect his property that it has thereby deteriorated or is thereby deteriorating or is about thereby to deteriorate in value, issue a warrant to the marshal to

seize and hold it subject to further orders. Before such warrant is issued the petitioners applying therefor shall enter into a bond in such an amount as the judge shall fix, with such sureties as he shall approve, conditioned to indemnify such bankrupt for such damages as he shall sustain in the event such seizure shall prove to have been wrongfully obtained. Such property shall be released, if such bankrupt shall give bond in a sum which shall be fixed by the judge, with such sureties as he shall approve, conditioned to turn over such property, or pay the value thereof in money to the trustee, in the event he is adjudged a bankrupt pursuant to such petition.

SEC. 70. TITLE TO PROPERTY.-a The trustee of the estate of a bankrupt, upon his appointment and qualification, and his successor or successors, if he shall have one or more, upon his or their appointment and qualification, shall in turn be vested by operation of law with the title of the bankrupt, as of the date he was adjudged a bankrupt, except in so far as it is to property which is exempt, to all

(1) documents relating to his property;

(2) interests in patents, patent rights, copyrights, and trade-marks;

(3) powers which he might have exercised for his own benefit, but not those which he might have exercised for some other person;

(4) property transferred by him in fraud of his creditors;

(5) property which prior to the filing of the petition he could by any means have transferred or which might have been levied upon and sold under judicial process against him:

Provided, That when any bankrupt shall have

any insurance policy which has a cash surrender value payable to himself, his estate, or personal representatives, he may, within thirty days after the cash surrender value has been ascertained and stated to the trustee by the company issuing the same, pay or secure to the trustee the sum so ascertained and stated, and continue to hold, own, and carry such policy free from the claims of the creditors participating in the distribution of his estate under the bankruptcy proceedings, otherwise the policy shall pass to the trustee as assets; and

(6) rights of action arising upon contracts or from the unlawful taking or detention of, or injury to, his property.

b All real and personal property belonging to bankrupt estates shall be appraised by three disinterested appraisers; they shall be appointed by, and report to, the court. Real and personal property shall, when practicable, be sold subject to the approval of the court; it shall not be sold otherwise than subject to the approval of the court for less than seventy-five per centum of its appraised value.

c The title to property of a bankrupt estate which has been sold, as herein provided, shall be conveyed to the purchaser by the trustee.

d Whenever a composition shall be set aside, or discharge revoked, the trustee shall, upon his appointment and qualification, be vested as herein provided with the title to all of the property of the bankrupt as of the date of the final decree setting aside the composition or revoking the discharge.

e The trustee may avoid any transfer by the bankrupt of his property which any creditor of such bankrupt might have avoided, and may recover the

property so transferred, or its value, from the person to whom it was transferred, unless he was a bona fide holder for value prior to the date of the adjudication. Such property may be recovered or its value collected from whoever may have received it, except a bona fide holder for value. For the purpose of such recovery any court of bankruptcy as hereinbefore defined, and any State court which would have had jurisdiction if bankruptcy had not intervened, shall have concurrent jurisdiction.

f Upon the confirmation of a composition offered by a bankrupt, the title to his property shall thereupon revest in him.

THE TIME WHEN THIS ACT SHALL GO INTO EFFECT.

[71] a This Act shall go into full force and effect upon its passage: Provided, however, That no petition for voluntary bankruptcy shall be filed within one month of the passage thereof, and no petition for involuntary bankruptcy shall be filed within four months of the passage thereof.

b Proceedings commenced under State insolvency laws before the passage of this Act shall not be affected by it.

[72] SEC. 71. That the clerks of the several district courts of the United States shall prepare and keep in their respective offices complete and convenient indexes of all petitions and discharges in bankruptcy heretofore or hereafter filed in the said courts, and shall, when resquested so to do, issue certificates of search certifying as to whether or not any such petitions or discharges have been filed; and said clerks shall be entitled to receive for such certificates the same fees as now allowed by law for certificates as to judgments in said courts: Provided, That said bankruptcy indexes

and dockets shall at all times be open to inspection and examination by all persons or corporations without any fee or charge therefor.

[73] SEC. 72. That neither the referee nor the trustee shall in any form or guise receive, nor shall the court allow them, any other or further compensation for their services than that expressly authorized and prescribed in this Act.

[74] SEC. 19. That the provisions of this amendatory Act shall not apply to bankruptcy cases pending when this Act takes effect, but such cases shall be adjudicated and disposed of conformably to the provisions of the said Act of July first, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight.

Original Act approved July 1, 1898.

Amendment approved February 5, 1903.

GENERAL ORDERS IN BANKRUPTCY

PROMULGATED BY THE

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

OCTOBER TERM, 1898.

[75] In pursuance of the powers conferred by the Constitution and laws upon the Supreme Court of the United States, and particularly by the act of Congress approved July 1, 1898, entitled "An Act to establish a uniform system of bankruptcy throughout the United States," it is ordered, on this 28th day of November, 1898, that the following rules be adopted and established as general orders in bankruptcy, to take effect on the first Monday, being the second day, of January, 1899. And it is further ordered that all proceedings