Dowell v. Applegate

7 F. 881, 7 Sawy. 232, 4 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 4051, 1881 U.S. App. LEXIS 2292
CourtUnited States Circuit Court
DecidedJuly 8, 1881
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 7 F. 881 (Dowell v. Applegate) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Circuit Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dowell v. Applegate, 7 F. 881, 7 Sawy. 232, 4 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 4051, 1881 U.S. App. LEXIS 2292 (uscirct 1881).

Opinion

Deady, D. J.

This case was commenced in the state circuit court for Douglas county on October 11, 1879, and after sundry proceedings therein was removed to this court by the plaintiff, on December 23,1880, on the ground that its determination involved the construction of certain provisions of the internal revenue act of June 30, 1864, (13 St. 223,) and the amendments thereto.

[882]*882Here the plaintiff has restated his case in the form of a bill in chancery, called “the amended bill, ” which was filed April 6, 1881.

The bill is entitled as one “in aid of execution,” and the relief sought is that certain conveyances made by the defendant Jesse Applegate and Cynthia Ann, his wife, to William H. H. Applegate and others, their children, of 1,011 acres of land in Douglas county, between the years 1867 and 1869, except one for 160 acres made in 1871, be set aside as fraudulent and void, so that the same may be sold, and the proceeds applied upon a debt of $6,5.04.09 due the plaintiff from the defendant Jesse Applegate, upon a judgment obtained by the former against the latter in 1878 for his share of a judgment obtained by the state of Oregon against the plaintiff and said defendent on August 4, 1874, as the sureties in the official bond of Samuel E. May, secretary of state, dated August 4, 1866, and subsequently satisfied by the plaintiff.

The bill alleges that the conveyance to the defendant William H. H. Applegate was for 240 acres of said land, for the “apparent consideration” of $500; that said defendant, on June 24, 1871, “deeded” 200 acres of the same to Charles Drain and John C., his son, for the nominal consideration of $500, while the actual consideration was $2,000 in cash; that the consideration was expressed in the deed at the sum of $500, “to conceal the value of the land, and to cheat and defraud the creditors” of said J. A. by making “the price correspond” with that of the deed to said defendant William A.; and that the stamp thereon is only 50 cents, instead of $2.00, as required by the act of congress. And further, that each and all of said conveyances, including those to said William A. and Charles and John C. Drain, “are illegal and a fraud under” the revenue act aforesaid; that an inadequate consideration • was expressed in each of said deeds by the grantors and grantees with the intent of evading, the provisions” of said act; that each of said deeds is stamped with a stamp of the value of 50 cents and no more, although the grantors and grantees therein well knew that the land conveyed by each was at the date thereof worth more than [883]*883$1,000; that the record of said deeds was made iñ “violation of the spirit and meaning of sections 152, 156 and 158” of said revenue act; and that none of said stamps were “can-celled, ” as provided in said act, prior to the recording of said deeds.

The defendants Charles and John C. Drain demur to the bill. ■ It is not alleged in the bill that they are not purchasers in good faith and for a valuable consideration, and that they are such purchasers was admitted on the argument, and therefore they are not affected by the alleged fraud in the conveyance to said William A.

The only question made upon the demurrer is as to the validity of the deed to Drains under the stamp act of June 30, 1864, as amended by the act of July 13, 1866. The provisions of the act which are cited as bearing upon the question aro found in sections 152, 156, and 158, (13 St. 292-4; 14 St. 141-2.) Section 152, as amended, makes it unlawful to record any conveyance not duly stamped, or upon which the stamps are not cancelled as required by law, and declares the record of such conveyance “utterly void,” and prohibits it from being used in evidence. It is plain that this section in nowise affects the validity of the original conveyance, but is confined to excluding it from the privilege of record, unless it is duly stamped and the stamps cancelled. Section 156, which is not amended by the act of July .13, 1866, supra, imposes a penalty upon any person “who shall fraudulently make use of an adhesive stamp to denote any duty imposed by this act” without cancelling the same. This is a penalty without a prohibition, at least in terms. But it does not follow, if it were both, that a conveyance made contrary to it— one upon which the stamp is fraudulently uncancelled—is therefore void. Generally, where a penalty is imposed for the commission or omission of an act relating to a contract without a prohibition of such contract, the same is not thereby made void.

In re Pittock, 2 Sawy. 423, the court, following what is understood to be the doctrine of Harris v. Runnels, 12 How. S3, laid down the rule as follows:

[884]*884“ Where a statute contains both a prohibition and a penalty, a contract or transaction contrary thereto is absolutely illegal and void, unless it appears, upon a consideration oí the whole act, that the legislature did not so intend.”

And it is also admitted that a contract made contrary to a penalty may be held void if such appears to have been the intention of the legislature. In such cases much depends upon the nature and amount of the penalty prescribed, and whether it is aimed at the contract itself, or only some form or incident of it; as, whether it was intended to prevent a contract or conveyance of the kind in question, or only as a security that it should be made on a certain kind of paper, or stamped with stamps of a certain value, which shall be cancelled, so as to prevent their reuse. In this case the fact that the statute has, in section 158, in addition to the penalty imposed upon the maker for the omission to stamp a conveyance, provided specially that such conveyance shall be void in case such omission is the result of a fraudulent intent, tends strongly to show that it was not the intention of congress to make a conveyance void for want of cancelling a stamp thereon, in addition to the penalty imposed on that account.

Upon a careful view of the whole act, and the circumstances of the case, it was very clear and satisfactory that such was not the intention of the legislature; and the fact that the stamps were not duly cancelled as.alleged in the bill, so far as section 156 is concerned, is therefore altogether immaterial in this controversy. Section 158, as amended, provides that a person who makes a conveyance without duly stamping the same and cancelling the stamps, as required by law, “with intent to evade the provisions of this act,” shall be subject to a penalty, and “such” conveyance, “not being stamped according to the law,” shall be deemed invalid and of no effect. The provision concerning the cancellation of stamps, and the clause “not being stamped according to law,” were added to this section by the amendment of 1S66. A conveyance made contrary to this section is void; but the mere omission to stamp the conveyance or cancel the stamps does not constitute or establish a violation of the [885]*885section. It must be alleged and proven by the plaintiff not only that the conveyance to the Drains was insufficiently stamped or the stamps not cancelled, but that the omission in either case arose, not from accident or ignorance, but was the result of an “intent to evade the provisions” of the law; that is, with intent to defraud the government of the stamp duty. Campbell v. Wilcox, 10 Wall. 422; Green v. Holway, 101 Mass. 243.

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Bluebook (online)
7 F. 881, 7 Sawy. 232, 4 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 4051, 1881 U.S. App. LEXIS 2292, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dowell-v-applegate-uscirct-1881.