Sherman County v. Nichols

91 N.W. 198, 65 Neb. 250, 1902 Neb. LEXIS 302
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedJune 18, 1902
DocketNo. 11,244
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 91 N.W. 198 (Sherman County v. Nichols) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sherman County v. Nichols, 91 N.W. 198, 65 Neb. 250, 1902 Neb. LEXIS 302 (Neb. 1902).

Opinion

Kirkpatrick, C.

This is an appeal from an order made by the district court of Sherman county on the 19th day of December, 1899, vacating and setting aside a sale of real estate theretofore made, and setting aside, vacating, satisfying and discharging a judgment or decree entered by the district court of that county on the 25th day of August, 1898. The record in the case is in such a condition as to make it almost, impossible to determine exactly what the trial court did, but, as nearly as we are able to ascertain from the record, the proceedings had, they are about as follows: On the 1th day of April, 1895, Sherman county recovered a judgment for the sum of $1,912.78, upon a depository bond given by the People’s State Bank of Litchfield, to secure a deposit of county money. The judgment ran against the .bank as principal, and against Albert T. Nichols, John H. Wilson, Edwin Harper, Lawrence P. Nissen, W. H. Chapman, Henry Lewis, John Greenhalgh and Felix Eckhout, as sureties. Upon this judgment execution appears to have been issued and returned unsatisfied for the want of property. Some time later, the date [252]*252of which does not appear from the record, a suit was brought in the district court of Sherman county in the nature of a creditors’ bill against the defendants above named, and a number of others, for the purpose of setting aside as fraudulent a number of transfers of real estate, made by the defendants involved in the first case mentioned for the purpose of putting their property out of their hands, and in fraud of creditors. Among these alleged fraudulent transfers are some made by Edwin Harper, one of the judgment defendants, to E. N. Harper. It is disclosed by the record that the creditors’ suit was, by stipulation of parties, tried at chambers in the city of Grand Island in Hall county before the Honorable J. R. Thompson, judge of the district court of that county, and on the 25th day of August, 1898, a decree was entered therein by said judge, canceling and setting aside practically all of the conveyances mentioned in the petition, on the ground that the same were fraudulent and were made without consideration. This decree appears to have been filed in the district court of Sherman county on August 26, 1898. The cause seems to have been tried, submitted, and a decree entered and filed in pursuance of a stipulation made by the parties, which appears in the record. The decree provides for the sale of the property which had been uncovered by the decree. About the 22d day of October, 1898, a certified copy of this decree was placed in the hands of the' sheriff of Sherman county, with directions to sell the property therein described. It also inferentially appears that execution was issued on the original judgment, which was also placed in the hands of the sheriff, who proceeded to levy under the copy of the decree upon the real estate mentioned, and upon the execution. He appears to have seized considerable personal property belonging to W. H. Chapman, Felix Eckhout, Lawrence P. Nissen, John Greenhalgh and Henry Lewis, and also seized forty acres of real estate belonging to one of the defendants, which appears not to have been involved in the suit to set [253]*253aside the .fraudulent conveyances. Some time after the levy of these executions, and at a date not disclosed by the record, the defendants W. H. Chapman, Felix Eckhout, Lawrence P. Nissen, John Greenhalgh and Henry Lewis, being a portion, only, of the judgment defendants, who were sureties upon the bond mentioned in the first suit, appeared before the board of county commissioners and entered into an agreement with the county commissioners, which was spread upon the records of the board in the form of a resolution, which, in substance, was that said creditors were to pay the sheriff $500 on that day, to be applied upon the judgment, and the county board was to order the sheriff to release the personal property levied upon; that on the 1st day of December, 1899, following, or upon thé confirmation of the sale of the lands mentioned in the decree canceling fraudulent conveyances, said creditors were to pay $500 more, to be applied upon the judgment, and the county attorney was directed' to appear in court and consent to the vacation of the sale of certain of the lands belonging to the defendant .Lawrence P. Nisson, and that when sheriff’s deeds were made for the lands described in the copy of the decree under which the sheriff was selling, and the county either received said deeds as purchaser, or the money realized from the sale if some other person was the purchaser, the county was to release and satisfy the judgment in full, or to assign it to the parties named in the agreement who appeared before the board; and that in the meantime an execution should not issue on the judgment until December 1, 1899, or until the confirmation of the sale should be had. Whether either or both of these payments of $500 were made is not disclosed by the record, but on May 9, 1899, the appellees, Edwin Harper and E. N. Harper, his alleged fraudulent grantee, filed separate motions in the creditors’ bill case in the district court to vacate, annul and set aside the judgment theretofore rendered in the district court against against Edwin Harper, giving four reasons, which, in substance, are that the judgment was satisfied, paid and [254]*254released in law and in fact, and that Edwin Harper had been released and discharged of all liability on the judgment because of the compromise proceedings had between the county commissioners and certain of the other sureties, defendants heretofore mentioned. From a careful examination of the motion filed by appellees Harper, it is quite clear that the judgment they sought to vacate and set aside was the judgment at law7 first herein mentioned, w7hich was rendered against Edwin Harper alone. But it is also certain that the motions w7ere in fact filed in the creditors’ bill proceedings, and were passed upon by the court in that case. The object to be attained by the motions seems to have been to set aside the sale of real estate w7hich Edwin Harper had fraudulently conveyed to E. N. Harper. Pending at the same time was a motion, filed by the county attorney on behalf of appellant, asking to have the sale of real estate of Edwdn Harper confirmed. The hearing upon these motions seems to have been continued from time to time over various terms of court, until on December 19,1899, when the district court made a finding and decree which in part is as follows: “The court doth find that the decree heretofore rendered herein on the 25th day of June, 1898 [having reference, doubtless, to the decree of August 25, 1898], in favor of the plaintiff and against the defendants E. N. and Edwdn Harper, has heretofore been fully paid, released and discharged in law7 and in fact as to the interests of said two defendants involved therein; and that plaintiff’s motion to confirm the sale of said land should be overruled, and that the motions of said defendants should be sustained. It is, therefore, considered by the court that the said decree be and the same is hereby released, canceled and discharged, in so far as the interests of the above-named defendants, E. N. Harper and Edwdn Harper, are involved and that the sale of the lands situated in Sherman county [describing them] be, and the same is, hereby vacated and set aside, and that plaintiff’s motion to' confirm said sale be, and the same is, overruled.”

[255]*255It is very clear from the fact that these motions were filed in the creditor’s hill case, and from the language of the court in the decree, that the court understood the motions to be properly in the creditors’ bill case.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
91 N.W. 198, 65 Neb. 250, 1902 Neb. LEXIS 302, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sherman-county-v-nichols-neb-1902.