Shakely ex rel. Bartley v. Guthrie

2 Pa. Super. 414, 1896 Pa. Super. LEXIS 68
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedOctober 12, 1896
DocketAppeal, No. 36
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 2 Pa. Super. 414 (Shakely ex rel. Bartley v. Guthrie) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Shakely ex rel. Bartley v. Guthrie, 2 Pa. Super. 414, 1896 Pa. Super. LEXIS 68 (Pa. Ct. App. 1896).

Opinion

Opinion by

Beaver, J.,

(after reciting the facts as above) :

It is claimed by the appellant here that the real estate of Andrew Bott was not bound by the judgment entered in No. 78 of December term, 1886, the suit not having been brought until after his death and his real estate having been conveyed in his lifetime to his daughter, Mary Jane Murdock. If the deed of Andrew Bott to Mary Jane Murdock, dated February 24, 1881, conveys a good title to the real estate therein described as against creditors of the said Bott, who were such at the time of the making of the deed, this contention of the appellant must prevail. The only question for consideration in the case is the validity of this deed, so far as the rights of the appellee are concerned. All the assignments of error relate to this single [417]*417question. The statute of 13 Eliz. chapter 5, Rob. Dig.. 295, 2 Purdon’s Digest, 12th. editiop, 2118, provides : “ That all and every.feoffment, gift, grant, alienation, bargain and conveyance of lands, tenements, hereditaments, goods and chattels,!or any of them .... shall be from henceforth deemed and taken (only as against that person or persons, his or their heirs, .successors, executors, administrators and assigns, and every of them, whose actions, suits, accounts, damages, penalties, forfeitures, heriots, mortuaries and relief, by such guileful, covinous. or fraudulent devices and practices as is aforesaid, are, shall or might be in anyways disturbed, hindered, delayed or defrauded) to be clearly and utterly void, frustrate and of none effect,- any pretence, color, feigned consideration, expressing of use or- any other matter or thing to the contrary notwithstanding.” Our Supreme Court, upon the request of the legislature, reported the above among many English statutes as being in force in .Pennsylvania and have many times construed it.

In the case of McAllister v. Marshall, 6 Binney, 338, Chief Justice Tilghman in his opinion says: “We have no bankrupt law. In considering therefore what an insolvent debtor may do and what he may not do as to the disposal of his estate, we must have recourse to the common law and the provisions of the statute of 13 Eliz. chap. 6. The debtor may prefer one creditor to another and for this purpose he may make a conveyance of any part of his property at its fair value, but he cannot under a pretense of preferring one creditor, make-a conveyance for the purpose of hindering others from coming at his property nor, above all, can he by any mode of contrivance or secret trust cover any part of his effects from the legal process of any of his creditors.”

Mr. Justice Duncan, in the case of Thompson v. Dougherty, 12 S. & R. 448, tried by him at nisi prius, in his charge to the jury, says : “ I have examined with care not only the English authorites but the American decisions and have come to the following conclusions : First. Where there is a voluntary settlement and indebtedness at the time and the recovery of. these debts is delayed, hindered or defeated, that such settlement, is fraudulent and void and that the avoidance of it on account of such indebtedness lets in the subsequent creditors on the property to satisfy their debts.”

[418]*418In Johnson’s Heirs v. Harvey, 2 P. & W. 82, in which a father conveyed a tract-of land to his sons, in'trust for the payment of all judgments on record against the grantor and for his maintenance and that of his family, Chief Justice Gibson says: “ A transaction more palpably fraudulent than this conveyance can hardly be imagined. A father, on the verge of insolvency, conveys to his sons, in consideration of an agreement to pay off certain judgments which he seems to think may be incumbrances as well as the residue of the purchase money to the state, and to maintain him and his wife while they live and the residue of the family,-till they are able to-maintain-themselves, is not that in principle the case of McAllister v. Marshall, 6 Binney, 388, in which a tacit agreement to vest a part of the property in trust for the benefit of the family voided the conveyance as to creditors who had not assented to the arrangement? The statute, 13 Eliz. which professes to void conveyances with intent to delay, hinder, or defraud creditors would be of little use, if a debtor might put his estate beyond the reach of his creditors and still get a living from it.”

In Hennon v. McClane, 88 Pa. 219, Chief Justice Agnew says: “It is well settled that one in debt cannot convey away all his property to his wife or children by way of settlement merely and without adequate consideration, nor can he convey his property in consideration of a support for himself or those dependent upon him, where the effect is to deprive his creditors of the means of payment of their debts; indeed the decisions do not stop here, for the statute of 13 Eliz. being directed against conveyances that hinder and delay creditors as well as those made with a covinous intent, bargains which are not ordinary sales to pay debts but which are unusual and tie up property out of the reach of creditors”, preventing the collection of their debts in the ordinary course of law are held to be against the statute and therefore fraudulent in law.” Of like tenor are numerous other cases which need not be cited. We have selected the foregoing as representative of different times and characteristic of the distinguished judges who rendered the decisions.

As between the present appellee and Mary Jane Murdock, the alienee of Andrew Bott, there can be no doubt that the deed of the 24th of February, 1881, hereinbefore cited, is [419]*419“ clearly and utterly void, frustrate and of none effect.” Its manifest object was to hinder and delay creditors in pursuing the property conveyed thereby, and to provide for the maintenance of the grantor at the expense, if necessary, of those to whom he was then indebted. The attempt to provide for the payment of the certain specified debts by making the grantee in the deed security therefor does not change the nature of the transaction, or relieve it of its covinous character. There is no evidence that she paid or secured or in any way attempted to secure these debts, or recognized any obligation to do so. Does the appellant, Belle Gibson, occupy any better position in reference to the property conveyed by the deed of Andrew Bott to his daughter, Mary J. Murdock? This deed was upon record. It bears upon its face the notice of the indebtedness to Michael Shakely and George Shakely, and also provides for the maintenance of the grantor out of the property conveyed during his natural life, and, therefore, carried with it notice to all the world of its fraudulent character. In addition to this, the evidence clearly shows that the appellant was cognizant of the indebtedness due from Bott to Shakely and of the character of the title which she secured by the deed from Murdock and wife to her. A. B. Gibson, her brother, who was a witness' examined on behalf of the defendants below, testified: “I bought the farm from Mrs. Murdock and her mother and Mrs: Murdock’s husband on a debt that Mrs. Murdock and Mrs.Bott owed to my sister. Well, the purchase of the farm canceled the debt that they owed to my sister.

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Bluebook (online)
2 Pa. Super. 414, 1896 Pa. Super. LEXIS 68, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shakely-ex-rel-bartley-v-guthrie-pasuperct-1896.