McIlwaine, Knight & Co. v. Fielder

107 S.E. 115, 88 W. Va. 464, 1921 W. Va. LEXIS 103
CourtWest Virginia Supreme Court
DecidedApril 19, 1921
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 107 S.E. 115 (McIlwaine, Knight & Co. v. Fielder) 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
McIlwaine, Knight & Co. v. Fielder, 107 S.E. 115, 88 W. Va. 464, 1921 W. Va. LEXIS 103 (W. Va. 1921).

Opinion

RlTZ, PRESIDENT :

In November, 1909, Mellwaine, Knight & Co. and other judgment lien creditors of William Fielder, filed their bill in the circuit court of Kanawha county for the purpose of enforcing the liens of their judgments against the real estate of said Fielder. In addition to the said Fielder certain other parties were made defendants to the bill, whom it is alleged appeared to be lien creditors of said Fielder from the fact that judgments in favor of such parties against said Fielder are docketed in the office of the clerk of the county court of said' county. On the bill being matured the same was referred to a commissioner to take an account, showing the real estate owned by said Fielder against which the judgments of the plaintiffs were liens, as well as the amount of the liens and the priorities thereof. The commissioner filed his report showing that William Fielder had been the owner of certain real estate [466]*466mentioned and described in tbe record, but that be bad conveyed this real estate, before tbe commencement of tbe suit, to bis three sons. He then reports tbe judgment liens of tbe plaintiffs, as well as tbe judgments in favor of certain of tbe defendants as liens against tbe real estate. He also reported a debt in favor of tbe Kanawba Valley Bank as a lien secured by a deed of trust, and also as a judgment in favor of said bank, without showing that tbe debt secured by tbe deed of trust and tbe judgment are tbe same debt. On tbe coming in of this report an amended bill was filed making tbe grantees in tbe deeds from Fielder parties, and averring that tbe conveyances from Fielder to bis sons were in fraud of tbe rights of tbe creditors. In May, 1911, tbe Kanawba Valley Bank brought another suit against William Fielder and Sarah F. Fielder, bis wife, having for its purpose tbe enforcement of its judgment, not only against tbe real estate of Fielder, but against tbe real estate of Mrs. Fielder. Tbe debt sought to be enforced in this suit is tbe same debt in favor of tbe bank which is set up in tbe first suit. None of tbe defendants appeared to tbe amended bill in the first suit, or to tbe bill of tbe Kanawha Valley Bank filed in the second suit, and tbe suits were consolidated and the conveyances from Fielder to bis sons were adjudged void and decreed to be set aside as in fraud of tbe creditors, and tbe causes referred to a commissioner to again take and state an account. This tbe commissioner did reporting, in addition to tbe liens of tbe plaintiffs in the suits, liens in favor of certain defendants named therein, as it is claimed, without any evidence to support said liens except tbe statement in tbe bill that tbe record in tbe county clerk’s office showed that said defendants have judgments against tbe said Fielder. On tbe incoming of this report, no exceptions being filed thereto, the same was confirmed, and tbe lands which said Fielder had conveyed to his sons, as well as the lands of bis wife, were decreed to sale in satisfaction of tbe liens adjudged against the same. Before said sale was made William Fielder and his wife Sarah F. Fielder, and bis sons, to whom be bad conveyed bis lands, filed a bill of review asking that tbe decree of sale be reversed for errors apparent [467]*467upon the face of the record in such proceeding. The errors claimed were that the debt of the Kanawha Yalley Bank was reported and adjudged as two distinct debts against William Fielder and Sarah F. Fielder, and sale ordered of all their said property to pay the same, when in fact and in truth the deed of trust was given to secure the same debt for which the judgment reported was rendered, which fact appears from the record in this case; further, that it appears that Sarah F. Fielder was only the endorser for her husband, William Fielder, upon said debt, and that the property of William Fielder should have been decreed to be first sold in satisfaction of this debt, and in case the same was satisfied out of his property her property exonerated from the lien thereof; and third, that the commissioner reported a number of judgments in favor of defendants named in the proceedings as liens against the said William Fielder’s property without any proof thereof. Upon the filing of this bill of review further proceedings in execution of the decree of sale were stayed, and upon a hearing being had upon said bill of review the court below made and entered a decree setting aside its former decree, and decreeing substantially the same as it had first decreed, with the exception that it decreed the Kanawha Valléy Bank’s two liens as one debt, and decreed that William Fielder’s property should be sold first in exoneration of the property of his wife. From this decree the Fielders prosecuted an appeal to this court, and upon a hearing here the decrees of the circuit court entered upon the bill of review were reversed, upon the ground that proper parties defendant to the said bill of review had not been made, and the cause remanded in order that the said bill of review might be properly matured. This, of course, left the case as if nothing had been done upon the bill of review, and sent it back for proceedings thereon to be begun anew. The opinion of this court on the prior appeal is reported in 76 W. Va. 111. On the cause being remanded to the court below the death of Sarah F. Fielder, wife of William Fielder, was suggested, as well as the death of Launce-lot Fielder, one of the defendants to whom said William Fielder had conveyed part of his real estate, and the suit attempted to be revived against these parties by making their personal [468]*468representatives and beirs-at-law parties defendants. After all proper defendants to tbe bill of review were brought before tbe court tbe case was again beard upon said bill of review, and the court corrected its original decree so far as the same decreed two liens in favor of tbe Kanawha Valley Bank for its debt secured by tbe deed of trust and evidenced by the judgment aforesaid, and recited that this was but one debt, and that said bank was entitled to only one satisfaction thereof, and also provided for tbe sale of tbe property of William Fielder in exoneration of tbe property of Sarah Fielder, bis wife, and that no sale be made of her property unless tbe amount derived from tbe William Fielder property was inadequate to satisfy said bank’s debt; and further held that a number of tbe liens reported by tbe commissioner were not sufficiently proven to justify said report, and without decreeing as to tbe validity of these liens recommitted tbe cause to a commissioner to give tbe parties further opportunity to present any evidence they might have as to tbe existence and tbe validity of such .judgments. All of these defendants appeared before tbe commissioner and presented their answers setting up their judgments with full certified copies' of tbe proceedings, and upon this showing tbe commissioner reported that these defendants bad valid and subsisting liens against tbe property of William Fielder, giving the amounts thereof, and the priorities thereof, as set. out in bis first report. On this report being filed, tbe circuit court then declined to further correct bis. original decree of sale, but entered a decree in accordance with that original decree, with tbe exception of tbe two modifications above referred to, and again decreed tbe lands of Fielder to sale in satisfaction of said liens, unless be should pay off tbe same before tbe day mentioned in tbe decree. It is from this decree that tbe present appeal is prosecuted.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
107 S.E. 115, 88 W. Va. 464, 1921 W. Va. LEXIS 103, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcilwaine-knight-co-v-fielder-wva-1921.