A few petitions in bankruptcy were presented for filing yesterday in the office of the Clerk of the United States Court for the Southern District of New York, under the new Federal bankruptcy law. The bearers of the documents were informed that petitions could not be filed until today inasmuch as the act, which was passed by Congress on July 1, provides that no petition for voluntary bankruptcy shall be filed "within one month of the passage thereof, and that no petition for involuntary bankruptcy shall be filed within four months of the passage thereof." The "one month" after the passage of this act is held to have expired yesterday, and petitions for voluntary bankruptcy therefore may be filed today.

Judge Addison Brown of the United States District Court will have the appointment under the new bankruptcy law, of a certain number of referees in bankruptcy who in all bankruptcy proceedings begun hereafter will take the places of the old time registers. Judge Brown also has the power to appoint trustees in cases where creditors fail to elect trustees, and the trustees under the new law will take the places of the assignees under the old law.

Under the new law a trustee will take title to a bankrupt's property by operation of law, and not by assignment. The last clause of the new law explicitly provides that proceedings commenced under State insolvency laws before the passage of this act shall not be affected by it. William S. Kelley of the law firm of Graybill & Keiley, 229 Broadway in discussing this new bankruptcy law yesterday said: " An important feature of this act is the right that it gives to a trial by jury in respect of the question of the alleged bankrupt's insolvency. The law also gives a very explicit definition of insolvency as follows: " A person shall be deemed insolvent within the provisions of this act, whenever the aggregate of his property, exclusive of any property which he may have conveyed, transferred, concealed, or removed, or permitted to be concealed or removed, with intent to defraud, hinder, or delay his creditors, shall not at a fair valuation be sufficient in amount to pay his debt."

"Any person may file a voluntary petition in bankruptcy under the new law and the question of the amount of the debt does not enter into the matter. No corporation, however, may file a voluntary petition. A peculiar feature and one which I think is going to be a serious question for judicial consideration, is whether, under this new law, railroad companies or insurance corporations can be adjudged bankrupts. There is no mention of railroad or insurance companies in the section of the law defining who may become bankrupts. Sub-division B of Section 4 says: 'Any natural person, except a wage-earner, or a person engaged chiefly in farming, or in the tillage of the soil, any unincorporated company, and any corporation engaged principally in manufacturing, trading, printing, publishing, or mercantile pursuits, owing debts to the amount of $1,000 or over, may be adjudged an involuntary bankrupt upon default, or an impartial trial,' & c. You observe there is nothing in that paragraph that applies to either the railroad or the insurance business.

"Another peculiar phase of this new law is the provision with regard to co-partnerships. It is here provided that all of the partners must join in the filing of a voluntary petition in bankruptcy by a co-partnership. Under the old law one partner could act. The jurisdiction of the State courts is preserved in respect of suits brought by Trustees. The new law abolishes registers and assignees and designates in their places referees and Trustees; it likewise reduces the expenses of administering the trust to a minimum. When a petitioner must deposit with the clerk of the court $25, of which $10 goes to the referee, $10 to the clerk and $5 to the Trustee. If there be more than one Trustee the five dollars is divided among the Trustees, no matter how many there may be. If in a voluntary application the petitioner makes affidavit that he is without means there need be no money deposit. In addition to his $10, the referee is to receive 1 per cent on all sums paid as dividends and 1 1/2 per cent, on the amount paid upon the confirmation of a composition. A Trustee, in addition to the $5 is entitled to a commission not to exceed 3 per cent. on the first 5,000, 2 per cent. on the second $5,000 and 1 per cent. on the remainder.

"The point raised that no petitions in bankruptcy could be legally filed at the present time because no rules have been promulgated by the Supreme Court of the United States does not impress me as being important. The law is explicit in telling just what shall be done, and therefore, in my opinion, persons can proceed under the terms of the act itself until the rules of procedure are provided. Section 30 says: All necessary rules, forms, and orders as to procedure and for carrying this act into force and effect shall be prescribed and may be amended from time to time by the Supreme Court of the United States."

"It is worthy of note that this new law gives a new definition to the term wage earner." It says that "a wage earner shall mean an individual who works for wages, salary, or hire, at a rate of compensation not exceeding $1,500 per year."

Mr. Walgrave Harlock, who has been studying the new bankruptcy law very closely, directed attention to an interesting point yesterday. Under the old bankruptcy laws, if a bankrupt omitted from his schedules, without intent or fraud, any items of his indebtedness, those items nevertheless became wiped out by his discharge in bankruptcy. The new law provides that if a debt due to a creditor is not placed in a bankrupt's schedules with the name of the creditor, if known to the bankrupt, such debt is not affected by the bankrupt's discharge and consequently it will continue to stand as a legal claim against the bankrupt. "This provision" said Mr. Harlock, "will have the effect of making insolvent debtors, and lawyers also, more careful in preparing their papers. Of course a man who goes through bankruptcy proceedings desires to be discharged from every debt."

Wants the New Act Applied
A case having a bearing on the new Federal bankruptcy law came before Justice Beekman in Special Term, Part I., of the Supreme Court, yesterday. Application was made in behalf of George F. Vietor, a creditor of Jacob and Martin M. Lewis, doing business as woolen dealers in Church Street, under the name of Charles Lewis & Brothers, to restrain the Lewises and Isaac K. Cohn and his wife Rebecca and the Sheriff from proceeding further with the disposition of the assets of the firm. Counsel for the plaintiff claimed that the creditors of the firm unless the injunction were granted, would be deprived of any share in the assets of the firm which had admitted its bankruptcy when judgment was confessed. He asked that the Cohns be restrained from collecting the amount in the hands of the Sheriff, and that Nathan Lewis be enjoined from collecting the outstanding debts until after Nov. 1. By that time the petition of the creditors to have the firm adjudged insolvent would be filed in the United States court under the new Bankruptcy act.

The United States District Court, the plaintiff's counsel said, would then take charge of the assets and see that all of the creditors were treated similarly in the distribution of the assets. He declared that this application was perfectly fair and legal, as he did not ask that the transfer of the outstanding debts, or that the confessed judgment be set aside, but merely desired that all the creditors be fairly dealt with. It was impossible at present to go to the United States Court, as the compulsory petition could not be filled until November, and unless the injunction were granted there would be nothing left at that time for the creditors. In opposition to the motion it was contended that the Supreme Court had no jurisdiction, as the bankruptcy law is a Federal law and can be administered only by the United States courts. This application, it was maintained, should have been made to the Federal court. Justice Beekman reserved his decision.