Fidelity Loan & Trust Co. v. Engleby

37 S.E. 957, 99 Va. 168, 1901 Va. LEXIS 25
CourtSupreme Court of Virginia
DecidedJanuary 31, 1901
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 37 S.E. 957 (Fidelity Loan & Trust Co. v. Engleby) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fidelity Loan & Trust Co. v. Engleby, 37 S.E. 957, 99 Va. 168, 1901 Va. LEXIS 25 (Va. 1901).

Opinion

Harrison, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

The question presented by the petition for appeal grows out of two suits heard together, which were instituted by the appellant bank; one to set aside a deed dated July 11, 1894, from Thomas Engleby, conveying to his wife, Elizabeth Engleby, several lots of land in the city of Eoanoke, upon the ground that said deed was voluntary and without consideration, and made to Under, delay and defraud the creditors of the grantor; and the other to set aside, upon like grounds, a deed from John Engleby, dated September 5, 1894, conveying to Us wife, Sarah Engleby, a certain house and lot in the same city.

The charge of fraud is not sustained. It does, however, appear that the conveyances mentioned were voluntary and without consideration. The sole question raised by the appellant is, whether or not the debt constituting the basis of a certain judgment asserted by it, was contracted prior to the date of the deeds assailed, and if so, whether or not said debt has been paid off or discharged; the Circmt Court having held that the debt in question was not prior in time or right to either of said deeds.

It appears that, on the 18th of December, 1893, appellant discounted two negotiable notes, each for the sum of $4,350.00, [170]*170at four months, drawn by "the Cloverdale Iron and Land Company, and endorsed by Joseph T. Engleby, John Engleby, Thomas Engleby and Henry Body. At the same timé, the Cloverdale Iron and Land Company executed a deed of trust conveying certain real estate to a trustee to indemnify and save harmless its endorsers. These notes were renewed from time to time, without change as to maker or endorsers, until June 21, 1895, when the debt was continued in the form of a negotiable note for $8,685.00,.made by the four endorsers, as principals, with collateral; and the original notes stamped paid by the appellant, and surrendered. On July 29, 1895, the trustee sold the property conveyed in trust to indemnify the endorsers, and it was knocked out to Thomas Engleby and Henry Body, two of the endorsers, who immediately transferred their bid to the Cloverdale Farming and Mineral Company, to which last named Company a deed was made by the trustee. On the 19 th of August, 1895, the note for $8,685.00, dated June 21, 1895, was surrendered, and the debt continued in the form of four notes for $2,171.00 each, at four months. One of these notes was made by Henry Body and endorsed by Emelyne Body. The other three were made, one by Thomas Engleby as principal, with the Cloverdale Farming and Mineral Company, John Engleby and Joseph T. Engleby as endorsers; another by John Engleby as principal, with the same company, Thomas and John Engleby as endorsers; and the third by Joseph T. Engleby as principal, with the same company, Thomas and John Engleby as endorsers. On the 22d of August, 1895, the Cloverdale Farming and Mineral Company conveyed to a trustee the same lands sold under the first deed of trust, to secure to the appellant “a debt of $8,684.00,” evidenced as stated in the deed of trust, by the four notes already described of $2,171.00 each. The note given by Henry Body was subsequently paid, and the notes executed respectively by the three Englebys, after being twice [171]*171renewed, and curtailed to $2,145.72 each, were reduced to the judgment for $6,437.16 now asserted in the bills filed by appellant.

The trustee sold the lands under the second deed of trust, dated August 22, 1895, and the proceeds applicable thereto were duly credited upon this judgment.

From the foregoing recital of its history, it is perfectly clear that the debt, embraced in the judgment here asserted, had its origin in the obligation entered into by the appellees, Thomas and John Engleby, on December 18, 1893, prior to the date of the deeds assailed as voluntary. The contention, however, of appellees is that, after the deeds were made, the original debt was novated, and therefore satisfied so far as any right had existed to assert the same against the property conveyed to their wives.

Whether or not a debt has been novated is a question of fact, and depends entirely upon the intention of the parties to the particular transaction claimed to be a novation. In the absence of satisfactory proof to the contrary, the presumption is that the debt has not been extinguished by taking the new evidence of indebtedness; such new evidence, in the absence of an intention expressed or implied, being treated as a conditional payment merely. In Barnett v. Miller’s Adm’r, 23 Gratt. 551, which was an action at law upon a bond for $800.00, dated September 20, 1862, the defence was made that it was a Confederate transaction, and should be sealed. It appeared that the plaintiff had held the bond of Giles Barnett for $700.00 before the war, and that, at the date of the bond sued on, she refused” to receive the principal, and, at the suggestion of the parties, added $100.00 of Confederate money thereto, and took the bond of Charles T. Barnett as principal with Giles Barnett, who did not want the money longer, as surety. The grounds on which it was contended that the whole was a Confederate debt, were: That a new bond [172]*172was taken for the whole amount, including the $100.00 loaned at the time; that the new bond was executed by two obligors, whereas the old one was executed by one; that when the new bond was executed the old one was surrendered; that Giles Barnett was the only debtor for the original debt, whereas Charles T. Barnett was the principal debtor and Giles Barnett only surety for the new debt; and that while Giles Barnett originally owed a specific debt, yet Charles T. Barnett received Confederate money only as the consideration of the bond executed by him as principal. The court held that these circumstances did not constitute a novation of the debt, but' that it retained its original character; and as to $700,00 was to be paid in full, and as to $100.00 it was to be scaled.

The case of Coles v. Withers, 33 Gratt. 186, was a suit brought to enforce a vendor’s lien. It appeared that several years after the date of the deed the vendee executed his bond with sureties to the vendor for all of his indebtedness, amounting to $10,630.50, which included the vendor’s lien, amounting to $3,564.00. The vendee afterwards died, leaving his entire estate to his wife who subsequently married, and she and her second husband sold and conveyed a large tract of land, which included the land upon which the vendor’s lien in question had been reserved. The husband had another settlement with the original vendor, taking up the bond for $10,630.50, and giving her his bond for the balance of $4,123.00, upon which bond he confessed judgment. The court held that these circumstances did not constitute a novation; that the vendor’s lien was a security not for the bond, but for the debt; that the surrender of the bond could not extinguish the debt, and the lien for its payment, without a manifest intention to do so by the vendor, and the burden was on the purchaser to show such intention; that a mere change of securities of equal dignity was not a novation of a debt unless plainly so intended by the parties.

[173]*173The principles applicable to this class of cases are discussed at some length in the case of Morris v. Harveys and Williams, 75 Va. 726, relied on by the appellees.

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Bluebook (online)
37 S.E. 957, 99 Va. 168, 1901 Va. LEXIS 25, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fidelity-loan-trust-co-v-engleby-va-1901.