In the case of Jones, Receiver v. St. Louis Land and Cattle Co., 1913, the United States Supreme Court was asked to determine whether a receiver appointed by a federal court could be held personally liable for debts incurred during his receivership. The dispute arose when Jones, who had been appointed as receiver for the insolvent International Trust Company of Missouri, failed to pay rent owed to the St. Louis Land and Cattle Company for property leased by the trust company prior to its insolvency. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Jones stating that he should not be held personally responsible because he acted within his capacity as a court-appointed officer carrying out duties assigned by law or under orders from courts having jurisdiction over such matters. Therefore, any liability arising from those actions would fall on him only in an official capacity rather than personal one. This ruling established important legal precedent regarding liabilities faced by receivers or other similar officers appointed by courts which continues influencing American jurisprudence today.

In the dissenting opinion for Jones v. St. Louis Land and Cattle Co., it was argued that the majority's decision to uphold a lower court ruling, which allowed a receiver of an insolvent corporation to recover payments made by the corporation prior to its insolvency, was incorrect. The dissenting justices believed that these payments were not fraudulent conveyances as they did not deplete the assets of the company at a time when it should have been preserving them for creditors. They also disagreed with characterizing these transactions as preferential transfers because they occurred before bankruptcy proceedings began and thus could not be seen as favoring certain creditors over others in violation of bankruptcy law principles. Furthermore, they contended that allowing such recovery would unfairly penalize those who had conducted business with corporations on good faith terms without any knowledge or reason to suspect their impending insolvency.