Oldham v. Wade

200 S.W. 1053, 273 Mo. 231, 1918 Mo. LEXIS 149
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedFebruary 2, 1918
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 200 S.W. 1053 (Oldham v. Wade) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Oldham v. Wade, 200 S.W. 1053, 273 Mo. 231, 1918 Mo. LEXIS 149 (Mo. 1918).

Opinions

RAILEY, C.

The petition in this ease was lost from the files, hut it is agreed that its allegations duly set forth facts, charging that Lucile Wade fraudulently disposed of certain land lying in Pettis County, Missouri, and. described in the petition, to her husband, Harvey E. Wade, by means of a deed first made by the Wades to Roy Underwood, who afterwards conveyed the property to defendant Harvey E. Wade, who after-wards conveyed the same to Foster, who incumbered the same with a fraudulent mortgage for four thousand dollars, securing a note for that sum to defendant Wade, in which said mortgage or deed of trust George Barnett, Jr., was trustee. The petition also charged that plaintiffs were judgment creditors of defendant Lucile Wade; that after said fraudulent conveyance, the sheriff of Pettis County aforesaid levied upon said real estate and sold the same to plaintiffs under an execution. The petition prayed that all the title to said real estate in defendants be divested ffrom them and invested in plaintiffs; and also prayed for a decree to quiet title against the claims of defendants.

The answer contains a general denial, except in respect to those matters admitted to be true. It admits the conveyances described in the petition, denies they were fraudulent, and alleges other defenses which will be considered hereafter.

The answer charges that the sale under execution to plaintiffs was fraudulent; that the Pettis land was worth $4500 and plaintiffs only paid $100 for same; that said execution sale was void, etc. They ask to have the sheriff’s deed to plaintiffs set aside and can-celled, and that defendant H. E. Wade be decreed the owner of said land, etc.

The reply is a general denial of the new matter in the answer.

The trial court found that Mrs. Wade was the owner in fee of the real estate in controversy, subject to an equity lien for the full amount of plaintiffs’ judgment and costs. ^

[240]*240Cross-appeals were taken by both plaintiffs and defendants.

Conveyance. This case presents some complex questions, which are difficult of proper solution. If, upon an examination of the record we should find that it is free from fraud upon the part of defendants, our conclusion as the disposition of the case would not be attended with any difficulty, but on the other hand, if we should conclude, that the charges of fraud lodged by plaintiffs in the complaint are well founded, and sustained by the evidence, the question, as to hoiv a court of equity, on the record before us, should frame its decree based upon such facts, is not so easy of solution.

veifance°to" Husband. ° I. Have the plaintiffs, by the evidence, sustained the charges of fraud made against defendants in regard to the disposition of the Pettis County land? bt may not be deemed inappropriate, at the outset, to state some general principles of law, applicable to this class of cases. Section 2881, Revised Statutes 1909, which is the same as Section 3398, Revised Statutes 1899, reads as follows.:

“Every conveyance ... of any estate or - interest in lands . . . made or contrived with the intent to hinder, delay or. defraud creditors of their lawful actions, damages; forfeitures, debts or demands . . . shall be from henceforth deemed and taken, as against said creditors and purchasers, prior and subsequent, to be clearly and utterly void.

Section 2886, Revised Statutes 1909, provides that:

“This article shall not extend to any estate or interest in any lands . . . which shall be upon valuable consideration, and bona-fide and lawfully conveyed; nor shall it be construed to avoid any deed, as against any subsequent bona-fide purchaser from the grantee for valuable consideration, and without any notice of fraud. ’ ’

In construing the provisions of above statute, in the leading ease of Burgert v. Borchert, 59 Mo. l. c. 83-4, [241]*241Judge Sherwood, very forcefully announces the following principles of law, applicable thereto:

“While it is undoubtedly true as a general legal proposition that ‘fraud is not to be presumed, but must be proved by the party alleging it,’ yet it is equally true, that fraud is seldom capable of direct proof, but for the most part has to be established by a number and variety of circumstances, which, although apparently trivial and unimportant, when considered singly, afford, when combined together, the most irrefragable and convincing proof of a fraudulent design.”

Since the enactment of Section 8304, Revised Statutes 1909, known as the Married Woman’s Act of 1889, husband and wife have had the legal right to deal with each other in buying and selling land, as though she were a feme sole, where the conveyance is made in good faith and without fraud. But, as we recently announced, in the case of Barrett v. Foote, 187 S. W. l. c. 70:

“In dealings between father and son, as between husband and wife, where the rights of creditors are involved, their acts should be closely scrutinized. [Bank v. Fry, 216 Mo. l. c. 45, 115 S. W. 439; Cole v. Cole, 231 Mo. 236, 132 S. W. 734; Ice & Cold Storage Co. v. Kuhlmann, 238 Mo. l. c. 697, 698, 142 S. W. 253.] ”

In regard to the question of the debtor’s solvency, in considering cases of this character, we stated the law clearly in Eddy v. Baldwin, 32 Mo. l. c. 374, as follows:

“The law is practical and looks to the attainment of practical results; and a solvency which it cannot employ in the payment of the debt of an unwilling debtor, is certainly not distinguishable by any valuable difference from insolvency. The term solvency in its application to eases like this, implies as well the present ability of the debtor to pay out of his estate all of his debts, as also such attitude of his property as that it may be reached and subjected by process of law, without his consent, to the payment of such debts.”

[242]*242The above principle of law is sustained by many subsequent decisions of this court, which will be found collated in Barrett v. Foote, 187 S. W. l. c. 69. It is well to remember this principle of law, in construing the result of the dealings between, defendant Wade and his wife, in which she attempted to convey to her husband all her property which might have been reached on execution under plaintiffs’ judgment against her. Other important principles of law, applicable to the case, will be referred to and considered later. Keeping in mind the above principles of jurisprudence, we will turn to the evidence and consider the charges of fraud made against defendants.

The plaintiffs were owners of Lots 43 and 44 of Oldham’s Addition to Kansas City, Missouri; and on January 28, 1905, sold to Mrs. Wade the above lots for $600, and took her note for said amount, due on or before two years from said date. Her husband was then absent from the State. No mortgage or deed of trust was taken to secure said note, nor was any vendor’s lien reserved. The lots were conveyed to Mrs. Wade by deed, dated January 28, 1905. On June 14, 1905, Wade and wife conveyed said lots to Mrs. Randall, and the latter, on the same day, conveyed' the same to Mr. Wade. Mrs. Randall paid no consideration for the lots, but was simply the conduit for transferring the title from Mrs. Wade to her husband.

Mr.

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200 S.W. 1053, 273 Mo. 231, 1918 Mo. LEXIS 149, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oldham-v-wade-mo-1918.