15 - Power of court.

§ 15. Power of court. The court shall have power:    1.  To allow claims, disallow claims, reconsider allowed or disallowed  claims, and allow or disallow them against the estate.    2. To authorize the business of assignor to be conducted  for  limited  periods  by  assignee, if necessary in the best interests of the estate,  and allow additional compensation for such services.    3. To bring in and substitute additional persons  or  parties  in  the  proceeding  when necessary for the complete determination of a matter in  controversy, by issuing a citation directed to such persons  or  parties  and to be served as ordered by the court.    4. To reopen estates whenever it appears they were closed before being  fully administered.    5. To determine all claims of assignors to their exemptions.    6.  To authorize an assignee to bring an action or special proceeding,  which he is hereby empowered to maintain, against  any  person  who  has  received, taken or in any manner interfered with the estate, property or  effects  of  the  debtor  in fraud of his creditors and which might have  been avoided by a creditor of the assignor and the assignee may  recover  the property so transferred or its value.    6-a.  To  authorize an assignee to bring an action, which he is hereby  empowered to maintain, against any person, who with reasonable cause  to  believe  the  assignor  was  insolvent as defined in section thirteen of  this act, has within four months of the assignment received a  voluntary  transfer  from the assignor of money or property for or on account of an  antecedent debt, the effect of which transfer is to enable the  creditor  to  obtain  a greater percentage of his debt than some other creditor of  the same class, and the assignee may recover the property so transferred  or its value. For the purpose of this section a transfer shall be deemed  to have been made when it is so far perfected that no creditor having  a  judgment  on  a simple contract without special priority (whether or not  such a creditor exists) could have obtained an interest superior to that  of the transferee therein. A transfer not  so  perfected  prior  to  the  assignment  shall  be  deemed  to  have been made immediately before the  assignment.    7. To direct upon the final settlement of the estate that the assignee  pay to the lawful creditors their proportionate dividend notwithstanding  their claim has not been presented in accordance with  the  notice  sent  out  by  the  assignee. If a final dividend is ordered and paid not less  than six months after notice to creditors to present their  claims,  the  assignee shall have no liability to creditors whose claims have not been  presented  prior  to  entry  of the order directing payment of the final  dividend and which were unknown to him at that  time.  The  court  shall  have  no  power  to  allow claims not presented within one year from the  date of the recording of the assignment.    8. To allow secured creditors such sum only as to the court  seems  to  be owing over and above the value of their securities.    9.  To  examine  the  parties and witnesses on oath in relation to the  assignment and accounting and all matters  connected  therewith  and  to  compel their attendance for that purpose and their answers to questions,  and the production of books and papers;    10.  To  require the assignee to render and file an interim account of  his proceedings within six months of  assuming  his  duties  unless  the  estate  is  sooner distributed and to require the assignee to render and  file a final account of his proceedings, and to enforce the same in  the  manner  provided  by  law for compelling an executor or administrator to  comply with a surrogate's order for an account;    11. To take and state an interim and a final account as  submitted  by  the  assignee, or, as to the final account, to appoint a referee to takeand state it if demanded, within ten days after the date has been  fixed  for  the  final  hearing  to  consider  the  judicial  settlement of the  account, by a creditor or creditors  whose  claim  or  claims  represent  one-fourth  or  more  in  amount  of  all claims scheduled or filed. The  referee shall be an official referee if such a referee is available  and  shall have the powers enumerated in subdivision nine of this section;    12.  To  settle  and  adjudicate  upon  the  account  and  the  claims  presented, and to decree payment of  any  creditor's  just  proportional  part  of  the fund, or, in case of a partial accounting, so much thereof  as the circumstances of the case render just and proper;    13. To discharge the  assignee  and  his  surety  at  any  time,  upon  performance  of  the  decree,  from  all  further liability upon matters  included in the accounting, to creditors appearing and to creditors  not  having appeared after due citation, or not having presented their claims  after due advertisement;    14.  On proof of a composition between the assignor and his creditors,  to discharge the assignee and his sureties from all further liability to  the compounding creditors appearing or duly cited, and to authorize  the  assignee  to release the assets to the assignor; provided, however, that  if there be any creditors not assenting to the  composition,  the  court  shall determine what proportion of the fund shall be paid to or reserved  for  creditors  not  assenting,  which shall not be less than the sum or  share to which they would be entitled if no composition had  been  made,  and may decree distribution accordingly;    15. To adjourn the proceedings from time to time, grant further orders  if  necessary,  and  amend  the  petition and proceedings thereon before  decree in furtherance of justice;    16. To punish as for a contempt any disobedience or violation  of  any  order  made  or  process  issued  in  pursuance  of this article, and to  restrain by arrest and imprisonment any party or witness when  it  shall  satisfactorily  appear  that such party or witness is about to leave the  jurisdiction of the court, and to take bail to secure the attendance  of  such  party or witness, to be prosecuted under the order of the court in  case of forfeiture by and for the benefit of the party in whose interest  such examination shall be ordered;    17. To exercise such  other  or  further  powers  in  respect  to  the  proceedings  and  the  accounting  therein  as  a  surrogate  may by law  exercise in reference to an accounting by an executor or administrator.