Springfield Lumber Co. v. Shaughnessy

225 Ill. App. 422, 1922 Ill. App. LEXIS 194
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedApril 22, 1922
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 225 Ill. App. 422 (Springfield Lumber Co. v. Shaughnessy) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Springfield Lumber Co. v. Shaughnessy, 225 Ill. App. 422, 1922 Ill. App. LEXIS 194 (Ill. Ct. App. 1922).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Heard

delivered the opinion of the cqurt.

This is an appeal from a judgment entered in the circuit court of Sangamon county, dismissing appellant’s bill for want of equity and assessing costs against appellant. Appellant, complainant below, filed its bill in chancery, alleging, in substance, that the defendant James P. Shaughnessy, husband of the defendant Gatheryn Shaughnessy, transferred by deed to his wife two pieces of real estate in the City of Springfield; that the title of record stood in his name; that because such title stood of record in his name subject to certain incumbrances, complainant extended credit to defendant James P. Shaughnessy; that after such credit had been extended, defendant James P. Shaughnessy, by deeds, made a pretended transfer of said real estate to one John P. McNichols, who in turn deeded them to James P. Shaughnessy’s wife, the defendant Gatheryn Shaughnessy, thereby rendering said James P. Shaughnessy execution proof; and that such conveyances were made for the purpose of defrauding complainant.

Defendant Gatheryn Shaughnessy filed her separate answer setting forth that she was the real owner of the property in question; that it was paid for by her and denying that there was any pretended transfer for the purpose of defrauding complainant as creditor of James P. Shaughnessy.

The finding of the master in chancery was that the defendant Gatheryn Shaughnessy allowed the defendant James P. Shaughnessy to retain the record title to the property, and that because the complainant extended credit to James P. Shaughnessy on the strength of the record title being in him, his wife, Gatheryn Shaughnessy, was estopped from denying that said real estate is owned by her husband.

The circuit court reversed this holding of the master and entered a decree finding that the record title in the premises was in James P. Shaughnessy; that the equitable title was in Gatheryn P. Shaughnessy, his wife; that the real estate was paid for by money supplied by her; that she made no representations to the complainant as to the ownership of James P. Shaughnessy to the real estate and in no way misled it or induced it to give credit to him on account of ownership of the property and in no way suggested or represented to complainant that title was in him, or that any credit should he given to him on the strength of ownership of the said real estate; and that the transfer of the legal title to Catheryn Shaughnessy was made for the purpose of protecting her rights in the real estate and not for the purpose of hindering or defrauding the complainant herein.

Exceptions to the master’s report were sustained hy the chancellor and complainant’s hill dismissed with costs.

Catheryn Shaughnessy testified that: “The first piece of property to which title was taken by either myself or my husband since our marriage is on South Second Street. That is Lot Fourteen (14), in Block Two (2), John Shaughnessy’s Addition. I think it was bought in about 1903. Mr. Shaughnessy bought it from his father. The purchase price was $800. * * * When we bought the first property from Mr. Shaughnessy’s father we had his father lend him money to make the first payment on the place, then we had to pay him so much money before he got his money out of the place. We borrowed it out of the Building and Loan to pay his father. Those payments were made by me at that time; my husband had no property or money at all.” She testified that all the money paid upon this loan was from rents and from her parents’ estate, and that the second property was purchased by money borrowed from the Building and Loan Association and that their loan was also paid from the rents and her parents’ estate. The first property was conveyed by deed to James P. Shaughnessy September 22, 1898, the consideration expressed in the deed being $1,000. A mortgage was given by Shaughnessy to the Building and Loan Association September 23, 1898. The Building and Loan Association stock was issued in the name of James P. Shaughnessy.

The title to the property stood upon the record in the name of James P. Shaughnessy until December 13, 1916, when it was deeded to John McNichols. Both of the Shaughnessys testified that they always supposed that the title was in Catheryn Shaughnessy until about the time of the making of the latter conveyance. Me-Nichols paid nothing for the property and only took title for the purpose of conveying it to Catheryn Shaughnessy. Upon this question MeNichols testified: “She told me about their trouble, and I think she said he was about to be sued. I took the deed to protect her, to keep the creditors from reaching him, if it would take it away from her. He mentioned the fact that his business did not go exactly right in some way, and there was something about getting the property out of his name so it could not be reached by a suit.”

In reply to the question, “Mrs. Shaughnessy, you have been asked about the MeNichols deed. Tell why the property was deeded to Mr. MeNichols?” Mrs. Shaughnessy testified: ' “Well, I had this money in and he got in trouble. They took his job and money and everything from him and I wanted to protect what I had. I didn’t know what they would do afterwards, and that is the reason I deeded it over to Mr. MeNichols. It was deeded to MeNichols for me.”

In Bartels v. Zimmerman, 293 Ill. 154, it was said: “It is the established rule of law in this State that a debtor may prefer a creditor or creditors and that such preference is valid notwithstanding the claims of other creditors, provided the debt preferred is actual and the property transferred does not greatly exceed the amount of the claim and the transaction is not a mere devise to secure an advantage to the debtor or to hinder, delay or defraud other- creditors. This rule applies to members of the family, but where an immediate member of the family is preferred as a creditor there must be clear and satisfactory proof of a valid and subsisting debt which would be enforced and payment exacted regardless of the fortune or misfortune of the debtor. (Schuberth v. Schillo, 177 Ill. 346; Dill-man v. Nadelhoffer, 162 Ill. 625.) "While a conveyance between parties related to each other by blood or marriage does not, of itself, establish fraud in the transfer, the fact of relationship may properly be considered in connection with other evidence tending to impeach the transaction. (Schroeder v. Walsh, 120 Ill. 403.) Intent to defraud is sometimes implied from the relationship of the parties in connection with other circumstances.’ (20 Cyc. 487.) ”

There is no claim in this case that Mr. Shaughnessy owed his wife a valid and subsisting debt of which'payment would be exacted without reference to the fortunes of the parties, so the conveyance in question, if upheld, can only be upheld on the theory of a resulting trust. . •

When one person has the money of another to invest for the owner and uses the money to purchase land and takes title in his own name, a resulting trust is created and the law will hold him to be a trastee for the owner of the money used in buying the land, and the trust thus created is called a resulting trust. The evidence to establish a resulting trust must be full, clear and satisfactory, that the title was taken by the grantee under such circumstances that the trust at once resulted.

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Bluebook (online)
225 Ill. App. 422, 1922 Ill. App. LEXIS 194, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/springfield-lumber-co-v-shaughnessy-illappct-1922.