L & M GAS COMPANY v. Leggett

161 S.E.2d 23, 273 N.C. 547, 1968 N.C. LEXIS 632
CourtSupreme Court of North Carolina
DecidedMay 1, 1968
Docket851
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 161 S.E.2d 23 (L & M GAS COMPANY v. Leggett) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
L & M GAS COMPANY v. Leggett, 161 S.E.2d 23, 273 N.C. 547, 1968 N.C. LEXIS 632 (N.C. 1968).

Opinions

BRANCH, J.

It is well settled law in North Carolina that a demurrer admits, for the purpose of testing the sufficiency of the pleadings, the truth of factual averments well stated and relevant inferences of fact reasonably deducible therefrom. Strong’s N. C. Index, Yol. 3, Pleadings, § 12, p. 625.

Aman v. Walker, 165 N.C. 224, 81 S.E. 162, is a “landmark case” on fraudulent conveyances. It is therein stated:

“. . . If the conveyance is voluntary, and the grantor did not retain property fully, sufficient and available to pay his debts then existing, it is invalid as to creditors; . . .”

Appellee contends that the complaint was fatally defective because it fails to allege that the conveyance was made without a valuable consideration. This poses the question whether a- voluntary conveyance or conveyance without a valuable consideration was sufficiently alleged by plaintiff’s allegation, “As plaintiff is informed and believes said deed was without legal consideration.”

A conveyance is voluntary when it is not for value, i.e., when the purchaser does not pay a reasonably fair price such as woüld indicate unfair dealing and be suggestive of fraud. Supply Corp. v. Scott, 267 N.C. 145, 148 S.E. 2d 1; Austin v. Staten, 126 N.C. 783, 36 S.E. 338.

A “good” consideration means a valuable consideration. Arrington v. Arrington, 114 N.C. 151, 19 S.E. 351. Black’s Law Dictionary, Fourth Edition, defines “legal consideration” as follows: “One recognized or permitted by the law as valid and lawful; as' distinguished from such as are illegal or immoral. The term is also sometimes used [550]*550as equivalent to ‘good’ or ‘sufficient’ consideration.” (Emphasis ours.) Construing the pleadings in the light most favorable to the pleader with a view to substantial justice between the parties, as we must, Glover v. Brotherhood, 250 N.C. 35, 108 S.E. 2d 78, we hold that the complaint sufficiently alleges a conveyance without valuable consideration.

Applying these rules to the pleadings in instant case, it is apparent that had the property conveyed been owned by the husband alone, the allegations of the complaint would have been sufficient to withstand defendant’s demurrer and motion.

Since the trial court sustained the demurrer because “plaintiff has no interest, title, or right in law in the proceedings and matters and things alleged in its complaint,” the real question becomes whether or not during the lifetime of his wife the rents, uses, issues and profits from the entirety land could be subjected to judgment taken solely against the husband. We must therefore consider some of the incidents and properties of an estate by the entirety. An estate by the entirety is an estate where the husband and wife are neither “joint tenants” nor “tenants in common,” since they are considered one person in law. They cannot take the estate by moities but both are seized per tout and non per my, thus neither can dispose of any part without the assent of the other, but the whole must remain in the survivor, Bryant v. Shields, 220 N.C. 628, 18 S.E. 2d 157. The doctrine of title by entireties between husband and wife as it existed at common law remains unchanged by statute or constitutional provision in North Carolina. Johnson v. Leavitt, 188 N.C. 682, 125 S.E. 490. The nature of the estate is such that the estate cannot be subjected to execution to satisfy a judgment taken against the husband or the wife alone, and the lien of a judgment so taken does not attach to the entirety property during coverture. Thus, in such case, during coverture the joint deed of the husband and wife may convey the entirety property free and clear of a judgment lien docketed against only one of them. Grabenhofer v. Garrett, 260 N.C. 118, 131 S.E. 2d 675. The reasoning which precludes a lien being placed on entirety property by a judgment solely against one spouse is forcibly stated in Bruce v. Nicholson, 109 N.C. 202, 13 S.E. 790, as follows:

“The nature of this estate forbids and prevents the sale or disposal of it, or any part of it, by the husband or wife without the assent of both; the whole must remain to the survivor. The husband cannot convey, encumber, or at all prejudice, such estate to any greater extent than if it rested in the wife exclusively in her own right; he has no such estate as he can dispose of to the prejudice of the wife’s estate. The unity of the [551]*551husband and wife as one person, and the ownership of the estate by that person, prevents the disposition of it otherwise than jointly.
“As a consequence, neither the interest of the husband, nor that of the wife, can be sold under execution so as to pass away title during their joint lives or as against the survivor after the death of one of them. . . . Indeed it seems that the estate is not that of the husband or the wife; it belongs to that third person recognized by the law, the husband and the wife. It requires the co-operation of both to dispose of it effectually.”

Upon the death of husband or wife the survivor becomes the sole owner by virtue of the deed creating the tenancy by the entirety. Woolard v. Smith, 244 N.C. 489, 94 S.E. 2d 466. However, where a joint judgment is obtained against the husband and wife during cov-erture, the lien attaches and the entirety property may be sold under execution. Further, the lien of a judgment docketed against either the husband or the wife will immediately attach to the entirety property if the spouse against whom the judgment is obtained is the survivor and the judgment is still active and unsatisfied. Johnson v. Leavitt, supra.

Although neither the husband nor the wife can separately deal with the estate, and the interest of neither can be subjected to rights of creditors so as to affect the survivor’s right to the estate-, the husband, during coverture, is entitled to the full control, possession, income, and usufruct of the estate. Bryant v. Bryant, 193 N.C. 372, 137 S.E. 188.

In the exercise of this control, use and possession-, he may, without joinder of the wife, .lease the property, mortgage the property, grant rights-of-way, convey by way of estoppel — qualified in all these instances by the fact’that the wife is entitled to the whole estate "unaffected by his acts if she survive him. See 41 N. C. Law Review 67, 85, “Tenancy by the Entirety in North Carolina,” by Dr. Robert E. Lee, and the cases therein cited.

In Brinson v. Kirby, 251 N.C. 73, 110 S.E. 2d 482, the wife brought suit to restrain sale of crops grown on land purportedly held by -the entirety. The sale was to- satisfy judgments against the husband alone. She offered evidence which tended to show, that she owned the land as her separate estate; that-an attempt to create an estate by the entirety was made but was void -for failure to comply with G.S. 52-12. The court excluded this evidence. . This Court held the evidence was erroneously excluded and stated:

“. . . The evidence should have been admitted, and with [552]*552the evidence before the jury the court could not have given a peremptory instruction, to which plaintiff appellant likewise excepts.”

In the case of Lewis v. Pate, 212 N.C. 253, 193 S.E. 20, plaintiff obtained a judgment against defendant J. R. Pate.

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Bluebook (online)
161 S.E.2d 23, 273 N.C. 547, 1968 N.C. LEXIS 632, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/l-m-gas-company-v-leggett-nc-1968.