Section 17. An assignee or receiver for the benefit of creditors shall be under the control of the proper court of common pleas; shall be the representative of the creditors of the insolvent, and entitled by proper legal steps, in his own name as assignee or receiver, to have vacated and set aside for the benefit of all the creditors any judgment, execution, attachment, sequestration, payment, pledge, assignment, transfer, conveyance or encumbrance which heretofore could have been avoided by the creditors, or any of them, or by which it is attempted to give one creditor preference over another, or which, by this act, inures to the benefit of all the creditors of such insolvent. He shall be vested with all the property of the insolvent, real or personal, which the insolvent could have sold, assigned or conveyed, or which might have been taken in execution, or otherwise made liable for his debts or engagements, or any of them, at law or in equity, including patents and copyrights, royalties, debts due to or for the insolvent, liens or securities therefor, and rights of action or redemption; and, by leave of and subject to the control of the court, may carry on any business in which the insolvent may have been engaged. Every beneficial power and the interest of any person entitled to compel the execution of a trust power, shall pass to the assignee or receiver of the person in whom such power or interest is vested. He may, by bill of discovery or other legal or equitable proceeding, obtain information of, and sue for and recover, in his own name as such assignee or receiver, any assets which the insolvent might sue for and recover, or which any of his creditors might make available in payment of their claims; and any recovery had shall inure to the benefit of all, in proportion to their respective demands. And he shall be liable to suit, in his representative capacity, by any person seeking to recover specific property, if such property could have been recovered as against the creditors of the insolvent levying an execution thereon: Provided,
I. That no purchase or assignment of the real or personal property of such insolvent, made bona fide and for a valuable consideration, before the recording of the assignment or of the appointment of a receiver in the county where such purchase or assignment is made, by or to any person not having actual notice or knowledge of such insolvency, or of the assignment or petition, shall be invalidated or impeached thereby, unless voidable under the other provisions of this act:
II. That if any person indebted to such insolvent, or having possession of any of his property, shall bona fide pay the said debt or deliver the said property to the said insolvent, without having had actual notice or knowledge of such petition or assignment, he shall not be liable to pay or deliver the same to such assignee or receiver.