This was a petition in equity to the circuit court of appeals for the seventh circuit, under the jurisdiction conferred upon that court by the 2d clause of § 24 of the bankrupt act of July 1, 1898, chap. 541, to superintend and revise in matter of law the proceedings in bankruptcy of the district courts of the United States in that circuit. 30 Stat. at L. 553. The circuit court of appeals certified to this court the following statement of the case and questions of law:
'On September 13, 1899, August T. Schloerb and Eugene B. Schickedantz, who were respectively residents and inhabitants of the eastern district of Wisconsin, and who were copartners in trade in the said district, filed their voluntary petition in bankruptcy in the district court of the United States for that district. On the same day they were duly adjudged bankrupt by that court, and the matter referred to a referee in bankruptcy for further proceedings according to law. They had at that date a stock of goods contained in a store, the entrance to which was locked by the direction of the referee.
'Thereafter, on September 21, 1899, James Cogan and Bernard Cogan, who were copartners, commenced an action of replevin against the bankrupts in the circuit court of the state of Wisconsin for the county of Winnebago, in which county the store of the bankrupts was located, to recover the possession of certain specified goods then in the store of the bankrupts, and forming part of their stck of goods. On the same day the proper undertaking and requisition to the sheriff of the county of Winnebago, according to the law of the state of Wisconsin, were delivered to the petitioner Charles M. White, who was then the sheriff of the county, who delivered it for execution to the petitioner Henry Eckstein, who was the under-sheriff of said sheriff. In pursuance of said requisition, the under-sheriff, on the same day, and before the selection and appointment of a trustee in the bankrupt proceedings, forcibly entered the store of the bankrupts, and took possession of certain goods, part of the goods specified in the writ of replevin.