Kanawha Valley Bank v. Wilson

25 W. Va. 242, 1884 W. Va. LEXIS 133
CourtWest Virginia Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 6, 1884
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 25 W. Va. 242 (Kanawha Valley Bank v. Wilson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering West Virginia Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kanawha Valley Bank v. Wilson, 25 W. Va. 242, 1884 W. Va. LEXIS 133 (W. Va. 1884).

Opinion

Woods, Judge :

It is contended by the counsel for the appellants, that the circuit court erred, first, in setting aside the conveyance from A. II. Wilson to Martha E. Chilton, dated February 22, 1875; second, in directing the sale of the529|- acres of land, including the interest of Mary E. Wilson therein, without making his brother, P. II. Wilson, a party to the suit, and without having the 529J acres specially assigned and laid oft to him out of the 1,212 acre tract, and in directing a sale of the lands conveyed to Martha E. Chilton, before it was ascertained that the proceeds of the sale of the 529-J acres should prove insufficient for the payment of the debts of A. II. Wilson.

[253]*253At the January term, 1881, of this Court, the appellee, the Kanawha Valley Bank, gave notice to the appellants that upon the hearing ot the appeal it would ask this Court to correct the decree appealed from in the following particulars, alleging first: It was error to charge the lands described in the deed from A. II. Wilson to Martha E. Chilton dated February 22, 1875, with the sum of $500.00, with interest from August 6, 1872, in favor of said Martha -E. Chilton; and second, in not charging the house and lot conveyed to Mary E. Wilson’s trustee by James E. Hansford and wife, in favor of the Kanawha Valley Bank with, so much of the money expended thereon by A. II. Wilson in building the house and other improvements, as was expended thereon by A. H. Wilson while he was indebted to the bank, to such an amount as he was then so indebted, and in not charging the same with the said debt of $1,500.00 due to William C. Blaine. At the time these errors were assigned the appellant, Mary E. Wilson, on motion of her counsel and with the consent of Martha E. Chilton and the appellees by their counsel, the appeal awarded her in this case was dismissed and she was made one of the appellees. None of the parties to this suit has called in question the validity or correctness of the debt of $1,500.00 due to Blaine, or of the several judgments against A. II. Wilson, reported by the commissioner. It does not appear, that on August 26, 1869, when A. H. Wilson purchased and paid for the lot in Charleston, which Hansford conveyed to Gillison trustee, for sole use of Mary E. Wilson, he was indebted to the plaintiff: or to any of the judgment creditors mentioned in the bill, and there is nothing in the case to show, that the purchase of the lot, at the price of $425, was intended to defraud any subsequent creditor. In October, 1870, when he completed the erection of the dwelling house upon the lot, he had expended thereon at least $3,000.00 of his own moneys; and also the whole amount of the $1,500.00 borrowed from Blaine, and was indebted to the plaintiff, as appears by the supplemental report of the commissioner, $307.48 as of the date of October 15, 1870, which debt ought to have been reported as $407.48 as of that date. It is true the court sustained the exception of the defendant, Mary E. Wilson, to this indebtedness, found by [254]*254this supplomeutal report, as well as to the finding of the indebtedness of Wilson to any person as of the date of October 15, 1870. The proofs in this record leave no room to doubt that in October, 1870, when the dwelling house was completed, the defendant, A. H. Wilson, had to all intents and purposes, made a gift to his wile, of $3,000.00 of his own moneys, and also of the $1,500.00 borrowed from Blaine, and of the amount then due to the plaintiff. Both of these debts remain unpaid, the debtor has .become insolvent and unable to pay the same by his own voluntary act, in making a gift of them to his wife, and the proof shows that the property in which the same are invested is still in the possession of the wife, who claims the right to hold the same free from the just demands of these creditors, thus defrauded for her advantage.

To permit the wife of a insolvent debtor under such circumstances to defeat the demands of her husband’s honest creditors, on the grounds that he had invested the moneys so'obtained by him, with all his own moneys, in improvements of her separate estate, not liable to his debts would do violence to the plainest principles of right and justice. The questions presented for our consideration are first, were the purchase of the lot from Hansford and the deed conveying the same to Gillison, trustee, for the sole benefit of Mary E. Wilson fraudulent as to the creditors of her husband, whose debts wore then contracted, or as to those who subsequently became such; and secondly, wore the advancements made by him which were invested in building said dwelling house fraudulent as to his creditors, and if so to which of them and to what extent ?

Before a man has a right to be generous, even to his wife, he must be just to all of his creditors. No matter what amount of property a man may appear to own, he in fact can rightfully be said to own only so much thereof as may remain after the demands of all his honest creditors are satisfied. According to the principles of natural justice and equity, he holds his property in trust for the benefit of all his creditors with only a remainder for the benefit of himself, or the objects ot his bounty.

If there be no creditors, or the amounts due to them bear only an inconsiderable proportion to the amount of his prop[255]*255erty neither equity nor justice will restrain him from exercising his right of disposing of the same, in any manner he may please, not prohibited by law. This right when exercised in favor of his wife, or children for whom by the ties of nature he is morally bound to provide, is always upheld by the courts, unless and except in such cases, where it is made the instrument of injustice to others whose rights are paramount to those of the objects of his bounty. While the courts have always watched with jealous eye every gratuitous disposition of a debtor’s property, which may place it beyond the reach of his creditors, yet it “would seem to be a consequence of that absolute power which a man possesses over his own property, that he may make any disposition of it, which does not interfere with the existing rights of others, and such disposition of it if it be fair and real will be valid.

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Bluebook (online)
25 W. Va. 242, 1884 W. Va. LEXIS 133, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kanawha-valley-bank-v-wilson-wva-1884.