In the case of Greey, Trustee in Bankruptcy of Schwab-Kepner Company v. Dockendorff (1913), the United States Supreme Court ruled on a dispute involving bankruptcy law and property rights. The Schwab-Kepner Company had gone bankrupt and its assets were being managed by a trustee, Mr. Greey. A creditor named Dockendorff claimed that he was owed money from before the company's bankruptcy and sought to have his debt paid out of the company's remaining assets. However, Mr. Greey argued that under federal bankruptcy law, all debts incurred prior to bankruptcy are discharged upon declaration of insolvency; thus creditors cannot claim specific properties as payment for their pre-bankruptcy debts. The court sided with Mr.Greey stating that once a debtor has been declared bankrupt, all their property is transferred to a trustee who then distributes it among creditors according to federal laws governing such proceedings - regardless if any individual creditor claims they should receive preferential treatment due to some special circumstance or agreement made prior to the declaration of insolvency.

In the dissenting opinion for Greey, Trustee in Bankruptcy of Schwab-Kepner Company v. Dockendorff (1913), Justice Holmes disagreed with the majority's interpretation of bankruptcy law and its application to this case. He argued that a trustee should not be allowed to recover payments made by an insolvent debtor before declaring bankruptcy if those payments were made in good faith and without knowledge of insolvency. In his view, allowing such recovery would unfairly penalize creditors who had no reason to suspect their debtor was insolvent at the time they received payment. Furthermore, he contended that it is unreasonable to expect every creditor receiving payment from a struggling business to investigate its solvency status beforehand or risk having their repayment invalidated later on during bankruptcy proceedings.