Clarke v. Philomath College

193 P. 470, 99 Or. 366, 1920 Ore. LEXIS 130
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 16, 1920
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 193 P. 470 (Clarke v. Philomath College) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Clarke v. Philomath College, 193 P. 470, 99 Or. 366, 1920 Ore. LEXIS 130 (Or. 1920).

Opinions

BEAN, J.

Plaintiff contends that the three conveyances from Samuel McLain to the defendant Philomath College were voluntary gifts, and that they hindered, delayed, and defrauded McLain’s creditors; that the plaintiff loaned the sum of $2,500 on the credit of McLain, who was surety on the note for his nephew at a time when McLain was the record owner of the three tracts; that the transfer of all of the property of McLain to the college, al[376]*376though intended as a meritorious benefaction, worked a constructive fraud upon plaintiff as a creditor; and that the failure of the trustees to record the deeds to parcels A and B until long after the execution of plaintiff’s note by McLain, and permitting him to remain in possession and exercise, acts of ownership over the real estate, was a species of fraud, and should estop the defendant, Philomath College, from asserting ownership of the land as against plaintiff, who loaned his money on the faith of the apparent title to the land.

It is the position of defendant Philomath College that at the dates of the conveyances of tracts A and B the indebtedness of plaintiff did not exist, and the deeds, although voluntary, are valid as to subsequent creditors, and that the deed to tract C was executed for a valuable consideration, about one third of the value of the land. This defendant also contends that plaintiff is guilty of laches in asserting his claim.

It appears from the record that for a number of years before his death Samuel McLain was not in very good health, unable to do any work, except the lightest, around his farm. He intrusted his business affairs largely to J. R. Parker, the business manager of the defendant Philomath College, who procured the conveyances sought to be set aside. For a number of years preceding his death McLain was continually making donations of ’ money and property and notes to the college, and during the last ten years of his life the college acquired practically all of his estate. It appears to have been McLain’s desire and the expectation of the officers of the college that that institution should be the beneficiary [377]*377of all. of McLain’s property, after paying his necessary expenses and satisfying his ¡just debts.

1-6. The following general rules serve as a guide. In 20 Cyc. 345, we find the following definition and rule regarding tests as to fraudulent conveyances:

“A conveyance is declared to be fraudulent when its object or effect is to defraud another, or the intent with which it is made is to avoid some duty or debt due by or incumbent upon the party making the transfer.

“The question in every case, except in most jurisdictions in the case of voluntary conveyances, is whether the conveyance was a bona fide transaction, or a trick and contrivance to defraud creditors, or whether it reserves to the debtor an advantage inconsistent with its avowed purpose. It is not sufficient that it was founded on good consideration, or was made with a bona fide intent; it must be both. If defective in either of these particulars, although good between the parties, it is voidable as to creditors. The rule is universal, both at law and in equity, that whatever fraud creates, justice will destroy. The test as to whether or not a conveyance is fraudulent is: Does it prejudice the rights of creditors?”

In the determination of the question of fraudulent intent in the conveyance of real property in fraud of the rights of creditors, a conclusion must be reached from the facts and circumstances of the particular case. The law furnishes no test by which it may be determined, further than it adjudges what acts are indicia of fraud, and which constitute badges of fraud: Weaver v. Owens, 16 Or. 301 (18 Pac. 579); 12 R. C. L., p. 477, § 10. In determining the legality or illegality of an alleged fraudulent conveyance, the courts inquire whether there was an adequate genuine consideration: Hesse v. Barret, 41 Or. 202 (68 Pac.

[378]*378751). A conveyance of land, made by a debtor without valuable consideration, is prima facie fraudulent as to existing creditors: Flynn v. Baisley, 35 Or. 268, 271 (57 Pac. 908, 76 Am. St. Rep. 495, 45 L. R. A. 645); Elfelt v. Hinch, 5 Or. 255; Davis v. Davis, 20 Or. 78 (25 Pac. 140); Taylor v. Miles, 19 Or. 550 (25 Pac. 143). Inadequacy of consideration is evidence of a fraudulent intent on the part of the grantor and of the grantee’s knowledge thereof, and lack of bona fides. Gross inadequacy, such as shocks the moral sense, establishes fraudulent intent and lack of good faith: Philbrick v. O’Connor, 15 Or. 15 (13 Pac. 612, 3 Am. St. Rep. 139); Scoggin v. Schloath, 15 Or. 382 (15 Pac. 635); Wright v. Craig, 40 Or. 191 (66 Pac. 807); 20 Cyc. 441; 12 R. C. L., p. 478, § 11; Id., p. 542, § 67; Bigelow on Fraudulent Conveyances (Rev. ed.), 519, 603. A distinction is made between the effect of inadequacy of consideration in a suit by the grantor and its effect where creditors attack the conveyance by means of which a debtor’s property has been put beyond their reach. The close business or social relationship between Samuel McLain, the grantor, and J. R. Parker, the manager of the grantee, in the deeds in question, has about the same force as evidence of fraud and notice to the grantee as does blood relationship: 12 R. C. L., p. 490, § 22. The fact that the conveyances complained of in this suit transferred substantially all of the property of the debtor, Samuel McLain, is entitled to consideration as evidence of fraud and lack of good faith: Mendenhall v. Elwert, 36 Or. 375, 384 (52 Pac. 22, 59 Pac. 805); 20 Cyc. 449.

7-10. The withholding of the two deeds of tracts A and B from the public records for about six years, and permitting Samuel McLain to remain in pos[379]*379session of the property and exercise such acts of ownership as conveying a right of way over the land, are badges of fraud. Such action on the part of the agent and officers of the defendant Philomath College should estop it from asserting ownership of the land as against the claim of Ingle, who during that period extended credit in reliance upon such apparent ownership in McLain: Sears v. Davis, 40 Or. 236 (66 Pac. 913); Bigelow on Fraudulent Conveyances, p. 521.

Where a conveyance is voluntary an actual intent to defraud is not necessary to render it fraudulent as to existing creditors: Wooten v. Steele, 109 Ala. 563 (19 South. 972, 55 Am. St. Rep. 947); Farmers’ etc. Bank v. Price, 41 Mo. App. 291; Bouquet v. Heyman, 50 N. J. Eq. 114 (24 Atl. 266). Where the effect of a particular transaction with a debtor is to hinder, delay, or defraud creditors, the law infers or supplies the intent, although there may he no direct evidence of a corrupt or dishonorable motive, but, on the contrary, an actual, honest, hut mistaken, motive existed. The law interposes, and declares that every man is presumed to intend the natural and necessary consequences of his acts; and the courts must presume the intention to exist, when the prohibited consequences must necessarily follow from the act. Hence it has been said that where a conveyance, by its terms, operates to hinder, delay, or defraud creditors, the intent to do so is imputed to the parties, and no evidence of intention can change that presumption.

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Bluebook (online)
193 P. 470, 99 Or. 366, 1920 Ore. LEXIS 130, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/clarke-v-philomath-college-or-1920.