Charles Evans Hughes

“ It contains no intimation of an intention to limit the jurisdiction to re-examine to a particular sort of legal services for the payment of which the debtor has disposed of his property. The point of the provision conferring jurisdiction for a summary re-examination is not the specific nature of the legal services to be rendered, but that the payment or transfer to provide for them is made 'in contemplation' of bankruptcy. ”

“ The manifest purpose of the provision is to safeguard the assets of those who are acting in contemplation of bankruptcy, so that these assets may be brought quickly and without unnecessary expense into the hands of the trustee, and to provide a restraint upon opportunities to make an unreasonable disposition of property through arrangement for excessive payments for prospective legal services. ”

“ Apparently the appellants wee retained to supplement the efforts of that attorney, to whom $750 had already been paid upon a promised fee of $2,000. The testimony of one of the appellants, given at an examination under section 21a (11 USCA § 44 (a) , was to the effect that he was to negotiate with creditors for a 50 per cent. cash settlement and was to assist the corporation in hypothecating its accounts receivable in order to obtain the necessary money to carry out such a settlement. ”