TITLE 10

Courts and Judicial Procedure

Special Proceedings

CHAPTER 73. Insolvency

Subchapter VI. Voluntary Assignments

§ 7381. Filing inventory of property assigned.

In every case in which any person makes a voluntary assignment of his or her estate, real or personal, or of any part thereof to any other person in trust for his or her creditors or some of them, the assignee, within 30 days after the execution thereof, shall file in the office of the Register in Chancery of the county in which the real and personal estate of the assignor is situate, an inventory or schedule of the estate or effects so assigned, accompanied with an affidavit by such assignee, that the same is a full and complete inventory of all such estate and effects, so far as the same has come to his or her knowledge.

15 Del. Laws, c. 187, §  1;  Code 1915, §  4651;  Code 1935, §  5109;  10 Del. C. 1953, §  7381;  70 Del. Laws, c. 186, §  1

§ 7382. Appointment and duties of appraisers.

Upon the filing of the inventory and affidavit required by § 7381 of this title, the Court of Chancery shall appoint 2 disinterested and competent persons to appraise the estate assigned, who shall, after being duly sworn or affirmed by some person having authority to administer oaths, to perform their duties with fidelity, forthwith proceed to make an appraisement of the estates and effects assigned, according to the best of their judgment, and having completed the same, shall return the inventory and appraisement to the office of the Register in Chancery of the county in which the inventory of the assignee and the affidavit accompanying the same were filed. The appraisers shall receive the same compensation as is now allowed by law to appraisers of the estate of a decedent.

15 Del. Laws, c. 187, §  2;  Code 1915, §  4652;  Code 1935, §  5110;  10 Del. C. 1953, §  7382; 

§ 7383. Assignee’s bond.

(a) The assignee shall, as soon as the inventory and appraisement required by § 7382 of this title have been filed, give bond with sufficient surety, to be approved by the Court of Chancery in an amount fixed by the Court, being not less than the total amount of inventory and appraisement of the estate so assigned. The bond shall be taken in the name of the State, and the condition thereof shall be as follows:

“The condition of this obligation is such, that if the above bounden assignee of shall in all things comply with the provisions of this chapter, and shall faithfully execute the trust confided to him or her, then the above obligation to be void, otherwise to remain in full force and virtue.”

(b) To the bond there shall be subjoined a warrant of attorney to confess judgment thereon, and the bond and warrant shall be joint and several, and such bond shall be filed in the office of the Register in Chancery of the county in which the inventory and appraisement were filed, and shall inure to the use of all persons interested in the property assigned.

15 Del. Laws, c. 187, §  3;  Code 1915, §  4653;  Code 1935, §  5111;  48 Del. Laws, c. 88, §  1;  10 Del. C. 1953, §  7383;  70 Del. Laws, c. 186, §  1

§ 7384. Proceedings on bond.

Upon the application of any person interested, the Court of Chancery may direct the bond provided under § 7383 of this title to be proceeded on if it deems it necessary and proper for the protection of such interested party.

15 Del. Laws, c. 187, §  4;  Code 1915, §  4654;  Code 1935, §  5112;  10 Del. C. 1953, §  7384; 

§ 7385. Assignees’ accounts and exceptions.

(a) The assignee shall render an account of the assignee’s trusteeship every year from the date of the assignee’s bond, required under § 7383 of this title, before the Register in Chancery of the proper county, until the trusteeship is closed and a final account rendered and approved. If the assignee fails to perform this duty, the Register in Chancery may issue a citation to such assignee, requiring the assignee to appear and exhibit under oath or affirmation the accounts of the trusts, within a certain time to be named in such citation.

(b) Upon the filing of any such account, notice thereof shall be given to all persons in interest as directed by an appropriate order of the Court of Chancery. Such order and notice shall set forth the time within which any person in interest may take and file with the Register in Chancery, in and for the proper county, exceptions to the account in question. The time within which exceptions to any such account may be filed by any person in interest shall be determined by the Court in the exercise of its discretion, and may be extended from time to time for good cause shown. Any exceptions so filed in respect of any such account shall be heard, determined and the particular account adjusted before the Court, as it may order or direct.

15 Del. Laws, c. 187, §  5;  Code 1915, §  4655;  Code 1935, §  5113;  48 Del. Laws, c. 80, §  1;  10 Del. C. 1953, §  7385;  70 Del. Laws, c. 186, §  1

§ 7386. Removal of assignees.

The Court of Chancery, upon cause being shown, may remove the assignee or trustee referred to in this chapter, and compel an assignment of the trust estate to others appointed in their stead. Any order of the Court in the premises may be enforced by attachment and imprisonment.

15 Del. Laws, c. 187, §  6;  Code 1915, §  4656;  Code 1935, §  5114;  10 Del. C. 1953, §  7386; 

§ 7387. Void preferences of creditors.

Whenever any person, in contemplation of insolvency or in contemplation of taking the benefit of any of the insolvent laws of this State, makes an assignment of his or her estate or effects for the benefit of creditors, and by such assignment, either under its provisions or otherwise, prefers any creditor to others, or in or by such assignment, secures or pays to any creditor a greater proportion of his or her debt or demand than shall be secured or paid to all his or her creditors, every such assignment so giving a preference shall be deemed fraudulent and absolutely void, and the estate or effects contained therein shall be liable to be taken in execution, or attached, for the payment of such assignor’s debts, as fully as if no such assignment had been made; and whoever makes such fraudulent assignment shall forever be deprived of the benefit of any insolvent law of this State.

Code 1852, §  2915;  Code 1915, §  4795;  Code 1935, §  5282;  10 Del. C. 1953, §  7387;  70 Del. Laws, c. 186, §  1