N.Y. Debtor & Creditor Law § 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 take

and 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.