Section 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.