Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“ The trustee, if appointed, may not know the condition of the property, or be prepared to decide. The court having the actual custody of the res does not know of the bankruptcy proceedings. There is a necessity for immediate action and no one is ready to act. If the local court, in its ignorance, directs a sale and the purchaser is chargeable with notice that there may be somewhere a petition filed that will destroy his title, the doubt affects the price that he will give, and if the sale turns out effective, the goods have been sacrificed. ”

“ The petition, so far as it affects the dredge, was denied, the judgment was affirmed by the supreme court of the territory, and the trustee appealed.
The main ground of the appeal is that by § 70 of the bankruptcy act [1] the title of the trustee related back to the date of the adjudication of bankruptcy, and that, as matter of law, Springer could not be a bona fide purchaser within the proviso of § 67f, saving the title of a bona fide purchaser for value who shall have acquired the property by the attachment without notice or reasonable cause for inquiry. ”

“ Rep. 457; Albright v. Sandoval, 216 U.S. 331, 339, 54 L. ed. 502, 508, 30 Sup. Ct. Rep. 318. The act as construed, though possibly broader than general order 18, 3, does not go beyond the principle of necessity, at least, as applied to this case. ”