In re Harris

HOLT, District Judge.

This is a motion that the bankrupt deliver his books of account to the receiver. The bankrupt declines to do so on the ground that the books contain entries which would incriminate him. It appears from the moving papers that the bankrupt made a statement to a mercantile agency, that his books contain entries which show that the statement to the agency was incorrect, and that some of the bankrupt’s creditors have threatened to prosecute him criminally.

The question involved in this motion is important. On the one hand, the law is well settled that the constitutional…