Keating v. Craig

13 Pa. D. & C.2d 663, 1957 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 130
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Alleghany County
DecidedNovember 14, 1957
Docketno. 435
StatusPublished

This text of 13 Pa. D. & C.2d 663 (Keating v. Craig) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Alleghany County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Keating v. Craig, 13 Pa. D. & C.2d 663, 1957 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 130 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1957).

Opinion

Soffel, J.,

This matter is before the court on exceptions to the special return of the sheriff. The material facts are matters of record and are not in dispute. Chronologically, they are as follows:

1. Title to the property sold at the execution sale was acquired by Robinson W. Craig and Robert E. Smith by deed dated February 2,1955, and of record in the recorder’s office of Allegheny County in Deed Book vol. 3358, p. 471.
2. Part of the consideration for said conveyance was a bond and purchase-money mortgage recorded in the recorder’s office of Allegheny County in Mortgage Book vol. 3568, p. 51, in favor of Alphonse J. Keating and Katherine H. Keating, his wife, execution-creditors herein.
3. Robinson W. Craig and Robert E. Smith conveyed the property to themselves and their respective wives, Marion 0. Craig and Helen Smith, by deed dated June [665]*66513,1955, and of record in said recorder’s office in Deed Book vol. 3391, p. 611.
4. On April 27, 1955, Robinson W. Craig, individually and trading as Derek Company, executed and delivered a note to Proie Bros., Inc., for $468.
5. On September 17,1955, judgment was entered in the prothonotary’s office of Allegheny County at DSB no. 3330, October term, 1955, on said note in favor of Proie Bros., Inc., against Robinson W. Craig, individually and trading as Derek Company.
6. According to the “List of Judgments” attached to the sheriff’s return, the United States of America filed liens for withholding and employment taxes against Robinson W. Craig and Derek Company on October 28, 1955, and November 26, 1955, in the amounts of $1,241.49 and $1,714.06 respectively.
7. On December 2,1955, Higgins Lumber Company, exceptant herein, obtained a note for $3,500 executed and delivered by Robinson W. Craig, Marion 0. Craig, Robert E. Smith and Helen O’Connor Smith.
8. On February 23, 1956, judgment was entered on the bond in favor of the mortgagees at DSB no. 2234, April term, 1956.
9. Higgins Lumber Company caused judgment to be entered on its note in the prothonotary’s office on February 29, 1956, at DSB no. 2482, April term, 1956, against Robinson W. Craig, Marion O. Craig, Robert E. Smith and Helen O’Connor Smith.
10. On February 29, 1956, the mortgagees filed a praecipe for writ of fieri facias at fi. fa. no. 435, April term, 1956.
11. The property was sold by the sheriff on April 2, 1956, for $13,125.
12. The balance of the proceeds after payment of costs, taxes and mortgage indebtedness is $2,432.83. The distribution of this sum of money is the matter in controversy.
[666]*66613. As to the fund in issue, the sheriff’s return reads as follows:
“To balance of proceeds, distribution of same withheld awaiting an Order of Court to adjudge the “priority’ of the within Federal Lien or liens over the judgment DSB 3330 Oct. 1966 herein.”
14. On April 30, 1956, Higgins Lumber Company filed exceptions to the sheriff’s special return, expressly taking exception to the portion of the return above quoted.
15. The United States of America, on October 5, 1956, filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, civil action no. 15072, under title 28 U. S. C. A., sec. 1345, against Robinson W. Craig and' Marion 0. Craig, his wife, and Robert E. Smith and Helen Smith, his wife, seeking to have the deed of June 13,1955, set aside as a fraudulent conveyance.
16. On October 9,1956, the complaint was amended to join Higgins Lumber Company as a party defendant.
17. On October 25, 1956, Proie Bros., Inc., intervened and filed a complaint alleging that it was a prior judgment creditor to the United States of America.
18. In the said civil action no. 15072, a judgment by default was entered on February 11, 1957, against defendants in said action which decreed that the premises referred to therein were an asset of a partnership between Robinson W. Craig and Robert E. Smith at the time of the conveyance by them to themselves and their wives as tenants by the entireties and that at the time of the transfer, the partnership was insolvent and the transfer was made in fraud of the Government of the United States and other partnership creditors. The court further ordered that the [667]*667liens of Proie Bros., Inc., and the United States of America were valid and subsisting.
19. The Federal Government concedes that its claim is subordinate to that of Proie Bros., Inc.

The question before the court is one of law and may be thus stated:

Who is entitled to the fund now in the hands of the Sheriff, Proie Bros., Inc., and the United States of America or Higgins Lumber Company?

From June 13, 1955, to April 2, 1956, the date of the sheriff’s sale, record title to the property in question continuously remained in Robinson W. Craig and Marion 0. Craig, his wife, and Robert E. Smith and Helen Smith, his wife. This created a tenancy in common as between the two married couples, each couple holding its undivided one-half interest as tenants by the entireties: Heatter v. Lucas, 367 Pa. 296, 80 A. 2d 746 (1951); Wally v. Lehr, 2 D. & C. 2d 722 (1954).

During the period the property was thus held the judgment of Proie Bros., Inc., against Robinson W. Craig, individually and trading as Derek Company, the Federal tax liens against Robinson W. Craig, individually and trading as Derek Company, and the judgment of Higgins Lumber Company against Robinson W. Craig, Marion 0. Craig, Robert E. Smith and Helen Smith were entered in the prothonotary’s office of the Common Pleas Court of Allegheny County in the order stated.

As far as the record is concerned, the Higgins Lumber Company judgment was the only lien attached to the realty as of the date of the sale. It is fundamental that a lien against one spouse only does not attach to realty held by husband and wife as tenants by the entireties. As stated by the court in Beihl v. Martin, 236 Pa. 519, 85 Atl. 953 (1912), at 528:

“The owner of such lien must hold it subject to its possible extinction in either of two events, the prede[668]*668cease of the husband (debtor-spouse), or the alienation of the estate by the joint act of the parties. The efficiency of the lien depends upon the nonhappening of either.”

Thus, considering only the record at the time of the sale, since the liens of Proie Bros., Inc., and the United States Government were not enforceable against the property sold at sheriff sale, they are not entitled to participate in the balance of the proceeds derived from the sale on a mortgage.

This question then arises:

Does the default judgment entered by the Federal district court at civil action no. 15072 give Proie Bros., Inc., and the United States Government priority over Higgins Lumber Company to the fund in question?

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
13 Pa. D. & C.2d 663, 1957 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 130, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/keating-v-craig-pactcomplallegh-1957.