Reported by the joint conference committee on June 24, 1898; agreed to by the Senate on June 24, 1898 (
43-13) and by the House on June 28, 1898 (
134-53)
The Bankruptcy Act of 1898 ("Nelson Act", July 1, 1898, ch. 541, 30
Stat.544) was the first
United StatesAct of Congress involving
bankruptcy to give companies an option of being protected from creditors. Previous attempts at federal bankruptcy laws had lasted, at most, a few years.[1]
Its popular name is a homage to the role of Senator
Knute Nelson in its composition.
^See Debt's Dominion: A History of Bankruptcy Law in America,
David A. Skeel, Jr., Princeton University Press 2001 (sample online at
[1]Archived 2006-06-18 at the
Wayback Machine).