Bishop v. State ex rel. Lord

83 Ind. 67
Indiana Supreme Court·Decided May 15, 1882·No. No. 9713·Published·Cited by 11 cases

Opinion

Black, C.

The appellee sued the appellants in the Howard Circuit Court, alleging in the complaint, that on the 29th of November, 1878, the appellee, by the consideration of the Hamilton Circuit Court, held within and for the county of Hamilton, in this State, recovered a judgment against the appellant Ira Bishop and Jacob E. Whisler and Abel Welsh, for $1,975.60 and costs taxed at twenty-five dollars, without relief from valuation, appraisement and stay laws of said State, which judgment was so recovered on a complaint founded on [68]*68a certain writing obligatory executed by said Ira Bishop, Jacob E. Whisler and Abel Welsh to the State of Indiana, on the 26th of July, 1867, conditioned for the faithful discharge according to law, by said Ira Bishop, of his duties as administrator of the estate of one William Bishop, deceased; that on the 1st of August, 1877, said Ira Bishop was the owner of certain lands in said county of Howard, described as follows : The southwest quarter of section number two, in township number twenty-two north, of range number two east, containing one hundred and sixty acres, more or less; that on the day last aforesaid, being such owner, said Ira Bishop and his co-defendant Margaret Bishop, who was and still is his wife, conveyed said tract of land by a general warranty deed to a brother of said Margaret, one Patrick McCann, who afterwards, on the same day, by a like deed, conveyed the whole of said land back to said defendant Bishop; that, at the time of the execution of said conveyances, said Ira was indebted to the .heirs and creditors of the estate of said decedent in the identical sum of money for which said judgment was subsequently recovered, as aforesaid, and which he had before that time converted to his own use, and also in other large sums, amounting, in all, to over five thousand dollars; that said deeds were executed as aforesaid while said suit in which said judgment was so recovered was pending in said Hamilton Circuit Court against said Ira Bishop, Jacob E. Whisler and Abel Welsh, with the fraudulent intent to hinder, delay and defraud the relator and the other creditors of said Ira out of their said debts; that said Margaret united in making said conveyance to said McCann, and received said deed back from said McCann, for the purpose of aiding said Ira in accomplishing said fraudulent purpose; that neither said McCann nor said Margaret paid any consideration whatever for said land, but, on the contrary, received said deeds respectively for the fraudulent purpose aforesaid; that at the time of the execution of said conveyances, said Ira did not have, nor has he at any time since had, sufficient other prop[69]*69erty, subject to execution, remaining, to pay his debts; that, for more than twenty years last past, said Ira has been in the possession of said lands, and using them for a home for himself and family, and claiming them for his own; that neither said Jacob E. Whisler nor said Abel Welsh, at the time last aforesaid or at any time since, has had sufficient property subject to execution to pay-said judgment and costs or any considerable part thereof. The plaintiff, for the use of said relator and the other creditors of said estate and of said Ira, demanded judgment against said defendants, that said conveyances should be set aside and decreed void, and that said land might be decreed to be sold to satisfy said judgment and other proper relief.

By changes of venue, the cause went to the Madison Circuit Court.

The appellants severally demurred to the complaint for alleged want of statement of sufficient facts. The demurrers were overruled, .and these rulings are assigned as errors.

It is said that the complaint does not allege that McCann •had knowledge of the fraudulent intent of Ira Bishop, and it is claimed that, to affect the title of McCann, such an averment was necessary, notwithstanding the allegation that the conveyance to him was made without consideration; and that, if McCann’s title was good, that of his grantee must be good.

If the complaint could be construed as suggested by the appellants, the objection made could not be sustained. Where it is shown that the grantee in a conveyance made with intent to defraud creditors of the grantor was a volunteer, it is not necessary to the subjecting of the property to the demands of such creditors, that it be shown that the grantee had notice of the fraudulent intent. In connection with Spaulding v. Myers, 64 Ind. 264, cited by appellants, Spaulding v. Blythe, 73 Ind. 93, should be read.

No other ground of objection to the complaint is suggested. It was sufficient.

The appellants jointly answered by a general denial; and [70]*70the appellant Margaret filed what is therein denominated her separate answer, alleging, in substance, that, in October, 1844, she furnished her co-defendant, Ira Bishop, money with which to purchase for her own use and in her own name an eighty-acre tract of land in the territory that now constitutes Howard county, in this State, which money was her absolute property ; that she never gave it to him as his own, nor authorized him to purchase land with it in his own name; that he did purchase with said money certain land described, being the east one-half of that described in the complaint; that, without license from her or her knowledge or consent, he took the title to said land in his own name; that afterwards, in 1852, she bartered and traded an interest which she had in certain land in Rush county, in this State, which she had inherited from her parents, for other land described, being the west one-half of that described in the complaint; that said Ira Bishop received a deed for the last mentioned tract of land in his own name, without her license, consent or knowledge; that she never consented or proposed to give him said tract of land, or authorized him to receive a conveyance therefor in his own name; that she made repeated efforts to procure from said Ira a deed of conveyance for said tracts of land; and that on, etc., without fraudulent intent or purpose, she, with said Ira, joined in a deed of conveyance to one Patrick McCann, of said two tracts of land, in trust for her use, and said McCann, in discharge of his trust, conveyed said two tracts to her, for the sole purpose of investing her with title to the real estate which was of right her own, and which she bought with her own money and property. She demanded judgment for her costs, and that her title to the land described in the complaint be perpetually quieted.

To this separate pleading of Margaret Bishop, the appellee filed a general denial.

A trial by jury resulted in a verdict for the appellee'against the appellants as to the east eighty acres of the land described [71]*71in the complaint, and for the appellant Margaret as to the west eighty acres.

A motion for a new trial was made by the appellants, which was overruled at the next term, and judgment was then rendered, whereby it was adjudged that said east one-half of said land was liable to sale on execution, under the judgment mentioned in the complaint.

, The overruling of the motion for a new trial is assigned as error.

The question of the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the verdict was presented by the motion in different forms.

Among the causes stated in the motion were alleged errors in the giving of the sixth, seventh and eighth instructions to the jury.

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Bishop v. State ex rel. Lord, 83 Ind. 67 (Ind. 1882).

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