Gregory v. Guinn

4 Tenn. App. 10
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedMay 22, 1926
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 4 Tenn. App. 10 (Gregory v. Guinn) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gregory v. Guinn, 4 Tenn. App. 10 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1926).

Opinion

SNODGRASS, J.

This is an attachment and injunction bill, filed by the complainant against J. M. Guinn and Lucy M. Guinn, his wife, and Chas. C. Guinn, a brother of the first mentioned defendant. The object of the bill was to collect a judgment which complainant had obtained before a justice of the peace for the sum of $689.99 and *12 interest against the defendant J. M. Gninn, to attach certain property of the said J. M. .Guinn alleged to have been fraudulently caused to be conveyed to the defendant Lucy Guinn, but purchased with proceeds of defendant Guinn’s property, certain real estate in town, and thus covered to prevent its being reached by creditors, and also to attach another piece of real estate alleged to have been fraudulently conveyed by the said J. M. Guinn to his brother, the defendant Chas. C. Guinn, on the 9th day of August, 1924, by a certain trust deed, which the bill attacks as having been made and executed to hinder and, delay and defeat the complainant in the collection of his debt, and also 'attacking the genuineness of the alleged debt of $643 which the deed purported to secure. One object of the bill was to set up an alleged resulting trust in the property described in the trust deed. It was insisted that the said J. M. Guinn had used the money out of which said indebtedness to .the complainant arose to purchase the property. But the Chancellor held, and properly so, that Guinn had paid for the property with money borrowed from B. P. Rollins, in which transaction complainant had simply become his security to Rollins, without any agreement or understanding that he was to have any interest in the property, and without any fraud, and that, therefore, the situation involved no case of a resulting trust. However, the indebtedness arose this way: Rollins sued Guinn and the complainant on the note. Complainant paid the matter off and took judgment over. Plea and demurrers were filed to the bill. The demurrers were overruled, but allowed to be relied on at the hearing. Answers were filed putting in issue every allegation of fraud. Proof was taken and the cause came on to be heard before the Chancellor upon the whole record, who on the 24th day of September, 1925, entered the following decree:

“This cause came on to be heard and determined before the Honorable T. L. Stewart, Chancellor at Chambers, in pursuance to an order made at the last term, and by agreement of solicitors, upon the bill, the answers of defendants, the proofs and exhibits and the whole record including the briefs and arguments of solicitors and from all of which it appears to the court that defendant J. M. Guinn,' purchased at chancery sale certain lands described in the bill and in the cause of Peoples Bank et al. v. J. W. Pell et al., in January, 1924, paying one-third the purchase price down in cash which he borrowed upon a promissory note of $666.66, from B. P. Rollins, on the date of the purchase, and secured by complainant J. N. Gregory. Thereafter in August, 1924, complainant notified Rollins that he would ‘stand no longer as security’ and Rollins sued on the note resulting in complainant having the note to pay. This money paid by complainant went directly into the land, but it appears that *13 Guinn purchased this land for himself and executed his notes for the balance of the purchase money, but that there was no agreement between complainant and J. M. Guinn for the title to be taken in complainant or that complainant should have any interest in the land and no fraud or deceit is shown so that J. M. Guinn, became the owner of an equitable interest in said land, which complainant fixed a lien on by attachment, but the court is of opinion that such transaction between complainant and defendant J. jM". Guinn, which money complainant was forced to pay was that of principal and surety only and created no ‘resulting trust’ in favor of the complainant in the land, and this contention of complainant is overruled and disallowed, to which action complainant excepts.

“The defendant J. M. Guinn on the day Rollins told him that complainant had notified him that he would not stand as security any longer on the said note, said to Rollins that, he was not going to pay anything that Gregory was on for him,’ and on the following day, August 9, 1924, executed the deed of trust or mortgage sought to be set aside as fraudulent in this cause to his brother, Chas. C. Guinn, one of the defendants. So far as the proof shows the mortgage sought to be set aside conveyed all the property defendant J. M. Guinn had, and reduced him to insolvency, and beyond any doubt it was his intention to hinder, delay and defraud complainant in the collection of this debt. The mortgage was made by J. M. Guinn with the intention of J. M. Guinn not to pay anything that Gregory was on for him, and the fact that it was done the day after notice, and made to secure his brother and none other and for only thirty days and the equities of complainant and circumstances of suspicion, is enough to place the burden of proof on Chas. C. Guinn to show that he knew nothing of the debt or fraudulent intent, which he has failed to show.

“It is therefore ordered, adjudged and decreed by the court, that the defendant J. M. Guinn is justly indebted to complainant J. N. Gregory for the note he had to pay in the sum of $666.66, with interest thereon from the 26 day of January, 1924, making a total of $733.32, and it appearing from the proof and the court so finds that J. M. Guinn, on the 9th day of August, 1924, conveyed all his property to his brother Chas. C. Guinn, by mortgage, to secure him in an amount not then ascertainable, according to the proof, and that Chas. C. Guinn, knew of the insolvency of J. M. Guinn and that he was conveying to him all his property at that time, which was a preference of creditors and known to Chas. C. Guinn, said conveyance is adjudged to be a fraudulent conveyance and made to hinder and delay creditors and especially complainant and the same is therefore decreed to be void and for nothing held and is set aside as to J. M. and Chas. C. Guinn, and the same is so adjudged.

*14 “And it further appearing that complainant has had an attachment levied on the land at the beginning of this suit, and that J. M. Guinn’s one-third or equitable interest was attached which fixed his lien, and that since said levy said land has been resold by the Clerk & Master for the unpaid balance on said land for the purchase money and the money is in the hands of the Clerk & Master, and after paying off said purchase money notes the Clerk & Master, will pay over to complainant and his solicitor all of the balance of said money. The defendants J. M. and Chas. C. Guinn, will pay all of the cost of this cause for which execution will issue.

‘ ‘ The bill as to Lucy M. Guinn, and the levy on her land is hereby dismissed, the same being made prior to the conveyance to Chas. C. Guinn, and no judgment is rendered as to Chas. C. Guinn, except for cost, for which execution will issue. In case that an appeal is taken by Chas. C. Guinn, the Clerk & Master at the request of complainant will copy into the record-the decree the Chancellor’s notes and findings from which this decree is drawn.

“The demurrers and pleas in abatement filed in this cause, having been heretofore overruled with leave to rely, at the hearing are overruled and disallowed, except as set out and indicated In this decree otherwise.

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Bluebook (online)
4 Tenn. App. 10, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gregory-v-guinn-tennctapp-1926.