Bankruptcy in an Industrial Society: A History of the Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Ohio

by M. Susan Murnane

Overview

Not a history of bankruptcy law, Murnane’s work is a social and institutional history of the Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Ohio. The work explains the development of the court and the story of the people who worked there and of those who sought refuge in the bankruptcy court, within the context of northern Ohio’s changing economy. The story of this particular bankruptcy court also illustrates the historical evolution of bankruptcy as an American institution.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781629220161
Publisher:	University of Akron Press, The
Publication date:	07/01/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	250
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

M. Susan Murname has a Ph.D. in history from Case Western Reserve University. She also holds a Master’s degree in Law and Taxation from Georgetown University, a J.D. from the University of Minnesota and a B.A. from Carlton College.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations vii

List of Figures ix

Preface xi

1 Introduction 1

Bankruptcy and Industrialization 3

Institutional Change in the Bankruptcy Court 12

Bankruptcy as Ideology 20

2 Insolvency and Bankruptcy in Nineteenth-Century Ohio 23

Speculation, Insolvency, and the Settlement of Early Ohio 24

The Bankruptcy Act of 1800 27

Insolvency in Early Ohio 30

The Bankruptcy Act of 1841 34

The Bankruptcy Act of 1867 43

Economic and Social Transformation: Prelude to Modern Bankruptcy 53

3 Implementing the Bankruptcy Act of 1898 61

The Referees 64

The Rules 82

The Bankrupts 86

4 The First Movement to Reform the Bankruptcy Act 106

The Referees 108

"Nothing is so helpless as an insolvent estate…" 121

The Hastings Bill 133

The Chandler Act 143

The Referees' Salary Act 149

5 Bankruptcy under the Bankruptcy Act: 1947 to 1978 156

The Referees: 1947 to 1965 159

The Debtors: Chapter XIII Wage-Earner Plans 173

The Bar: Bankruptcy Practitioners and Bankruptcy Practice in Cleveland 178

The Referees: 1965 to 1978 190

6 The Second Movement to Reform the Bankruptcy Act 201

Economic Decline in Northern Ohio 203

The Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978 215

The Transition to the Bankruptcy Code in the Northern District of Ohio 228

United States Trustees 241

7 Case Studies under Chapter 11 247

Mansfield Tire and Rubber Company 250

White Motor Company 252

Terex 266

Revco 273

Edgell Communications 284

LTV: Liquidate, Terminate, Vacate 288

8 The Political Economy of Bankruptcy 304

Consumer Bankruptcy in the Northern District of Ohio 306

The Politics of Consumer Bankruptcy Reform 312

Bankruptcy Judges 318

The Bankruptcy Court 330

Epilogue 337

Appendix 355

Commissioners in Bankruptcy 355

Registers in Bankruptcy 357

Referees in Bankruptcy 359

Referees in Bankruptcy and Bankruptcy Judges 364

Notes 367

Selected Bibliography 403

Index 419