Leonard v. Smith

12 S.E. 479, 34 W. Va. 442, 1890 W. Va. LEXIS 97
CourtWest Virginia Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 12, 1890
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 12 S.E. 479 (Leonard v. Smith) 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
Leonard v. Smith, 12 S.E. 479, 34 W. Va. 442, 1890 W. Va. LEXIS 97 (W. Va. 1890).

Opinion

Holt, Judge :

On the 15th day of February, 1883, Eloyd G. Smith, of Upshur county, one of the defendants below and husband of Mary E. Smith the appellant, executed to Ebenezer Leonard, trustee, a trust-deed conveying three several parcels of land in and near the town of Buckhannon, fully described, to secure his wife, Mary E. Smith, in the payment of a bond, that day executed by him to her for the sum of two thousand four hundred and twenty five dollars fifty cents, due one day after date with interest from date, executed for borrowed money. The trust-deed provided, that, if the debtor should make default, then the trustee was to sell when required by the creditor. This trust-deed was duly ackowledged, and admitted to record on the 16th day of February, 1883, at 7 o’clock a. m. On the 15th day of February, 1883, for a trespass which took place on the 11th day of February, 1883, defendant Mylius brought suit in Upshur county against Eloyd G. Smith and his brother, James L. Smith, and on the 15th day of October, 1887, ob-[444]*444táinecl a judgment against them for two thousand two hundred dollars, with interest from that date, and costs, amounting to one hundred and fifty five dollars thirty five cents, which judgment was docketed.

. On the 24th day of October, 1887, Ebenezer Leonard, as trustee, brought this suit in equity against'Eloyd G. Smith, James L. Smith, Levi Leonard, who held a vendor’s lien on one of the lots mentioned, and Charles E. Mylius, the judgment-creditor, setting out the foregoing facts, and that Mary E. Smith and Eloyd Q-. were married on the--6th November, 1879; that Mary E. was then the owner in her own right of a large and valuable estate, which was ■ after marriage her sole and separate property not derived from her husband; that out of it she furnished money to buy said real estate, and that out of her other separate estate the loan was made to her husband, secured by the bond mentioned in the deed of trust, and that, to protect her lien on lot No. 84, she furnished out of her separate estate the money to pay Levi Leonard two hundred dollars, and interest, which was paid since 15thFebruary, 1888, and therefore not included in the bond secured by the deed of trust; that he has been directed to sell, but deems it improper to do so, by reason of the liens of Leonard and of Mylius, without the direction of the court, and prays for ascertainment of liens with their amounts and priorities and the direction of the court in executing the trust.

Defendant' Mylius answered, charging that the trust-deed and bond secured were fraudulent; also filed what ivas treated as a cross-bill, attacking the deed of trust as fraudulent. The defendants Leonard, Mary E. Smith, and others, demurred to the .cross-bill, and the court sustained the demurrer as to those defendants, who were not parties to the original suit, and, as to them, dismissed it with costs. The defendant Mary E. Smith answered the original bill, denying that she out of her separate estate loaned to her husband the money to buy said real estate but alleging that she did lend him the money mentioned in the deed of trust. To this answer, there is a general replication, also a general replication to the answer of Mylius to the original bill, which answer does not expressly seek affirmative [445]*445relief. The process to answer a cross-bill was served on Mary E. Smith, and the other defendants ; but the record discloses no answer by any one to the cross-bill, except that the decree mentions the answer of- Maiy E. Smith to the cross-bill and the general replication thereto, as among the papers read at the hearing. Mary E. Smith files as an exhibit with her deposition, from a small book, the following account:

November 25, 1879. F. G. Smith. Dr.
To cash.$ 600 00
January 28, 1880. To note and interest on L. Young.1,600 00
April 20, 1880. To cash.'..220 00

Defendant Mylius took the depositions of some five witnesses, and Mary E. Smith of some nine witnesses ; and the two causes came on to be heard together on the 19th of October, 1889, when the court decreed “that the deed of trust of Floyd G. Smith to Ebenezer Leonard, trustee, of 15th February, 1883, conveying certain real estate therein mentioned and described, to secure an alleged debt therein mentioned to defendant MaryE. Smith, was fraudulent and void as to the said Charles E. Mylius, and as to his judgment against Floyd G. Smith and James L. Smith for two thousand two hundred dollars, with interest from 15th October, 1887, and costs thereon, and that the said property thereby conveyed to the said Ebenezer Leonard is liable to be sold to satisfy the same.” It gave Levi Leonard a decree for two hundred and nineteen dollars seventy six cents, with interest from the 19th of October, 1889, as first lien on the lot sold and conveyed by him to Floyd G. Smith; to Mylius, a decree for two thousand six hundred and twenty six dollars sixteen cents, with interest from that date, and gives forty days for the payment of sums decreed, and then appointed commissioners, who shall in default of payment sell on the usual terms.

From this decree, Mary E. Smith appeals.

Taking the grounds of error in the order assigned in arguments of counsel, we find: The decree is complained of because, “in effect it wholly sets aside the trust-deed to Leonard, trustee, securing appellant her debt, and nowhere in subordination to the Mylius debt or otherwise decrees its [446]*446payment.” I do not so read and construe this decree. In Bank v. Border, 32 W. Va. 232 (9 S. E. Rep. 220) the decree of the Circuit Court not only held the deed fraudulent and void, as to the plaintiff, hut expressly set aside and annulled it. In the case of Love v. Tinsley, 32 W. Va. 25 (9 S. E. Rep. 44) the court below decreed that the deed he set aside, annulled and held for naught. In Duncan v. Custard, 24 W. Va. 730, the two deeds declared fraudulent by the Circuit Court were by it cancelled in toto. In Murdock v. Welles, 9 W. Va. 552, the deed was declared to be null and void, and was cancelled. In Burt v. Timmons, 29 W. Va. 441 (2 S. E. Rep. 780) it was impossible for this question to arise, for the court below simply decided, that plaintiff was not entitled to the relief prayed for, and dismissed his bill. The case, however, on this subject, in saying what decree should have been entered, cites with approval the cases of Murdock v. Welles, and Duncan v. Custard, above. In Core v. Cunningham, 27 W. Va. 206; it is said that in that case the deed should have been held fraudulent and void as to the creditors; that the land should be sold as the wife’s, having been conveyed to her; and in Bank v. Wilson, 25 W. Va. 242, it is held error to cancel and set aside the deed but proper to hold it fraudulent and void as against the creditor.

The decree here complained of seems on this point to have been drawn with these cases in view. It declares the trust-deed fraudulent and void, as to the judgment of My-lius, but does not set it aside. If defendant, Eloyd G-. Smith or his wife or any person in interest shall pay to Mylius his decree, then the trust-deed stands good between the parties thereto; and, if this should not he done, and a sale should take place, then, as between husband and wife, the court would decree to her the surplus, or so much as may he necessary to pay her debt.

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12 S.E. 479, 34 W. Va. 442, 1890 W. Va. LEXIS 97, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/leonard-v-smith-wva-1890.