Takiff v. Infante

34 Pa. D. & C. 393, 1938 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 247
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County
DecidedOctober 14, 1938
Docketno. 6477
StatusPublished

This text of 34 Pa. D. & C. 393 (Takiff v. Infante) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Takiff v. Infante, 34 Pa. D. & C. 393, 1938 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 247 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1938).

Opinion

Levinthal, J.,

Plaintiff’s amended bill of complaint avers that she is a judgment creditor of defendant Luigi Infante and holds a mortgage to secure the bond upon which the judgment was confessed. Luigi, it is further averred, had been a member of Infante Brothers, a partnership which was dissolved in August 1935, its assets then passing to defendant. Luigi is said to have conveyed that property to his daughter Jane, the other defendant, for an inadequate consideration. Luigi is insolvent and the mortgaged property insufficiently valuable to satisfy the debt. The transfer is attacked as fraudulent. It is charged also that Luigi is now conducting the business of the Louis Paper Stock Company, a new company registered with Jane Infante as owner, in the name of his daughter in order to defraud his creditors. I am prayed to decree Jane trustee of the assets of the Louis Paper Stock Company for her father, to permit satisfaction of his obligations therefrom, and to enjoin further transfer.

[394]*394Preliminary objections, which attacked the jurisdiction of this court to afford relief prior to a return of nulla bona on a writ of fieri facias, were dismissed.

Defendants’ answer, in substance, denies the allegations of the amended bill. It avers that the assets of the partnership passed to a trustee and were sold to various persons for a fair consideration, that Luigi is merely an employe of the Louis Paper Stock Company, which is owned by Jane Infante. The value of the mortgaged premises is sufficient, defendants contend, to pay plaintiff.

I must decide whether the transfer of the partnership assets to Jane Infante was a fraudulent conveyance and whether Luigi Infante is the real owner of the Louis Paper Stock Company.

This case was heard by me several months ago and the responsibility for the delay in the filing of this adjudication rests with plaintiff, who neglected until very recently to file a brief which I had several times requested.

Findings of fact

1. On or about May 18, 1927, defendant, Luigi Infante, and his brother, Giovanni Infante, executed and delivered to plaintiff, Goldie Takiff, their bond and warrant of attorney in the sum of $10,000, conditioned upon the payment of the principal sum of $5,000 at the expiration of three years from the date thereof.

2. The aforementioned bond and warrant was accompanied by a mortgage of even date secured upon premises 402 S. Water Street and 10 Pine Street, in the City of Philadelphia, Pa.

3. By reason of default in the payment of principal, taxes, and water rent, judgment was confessed on the said bond and warrant against the obligors therein in Common Pleas Court No. 3 of Philadelphia County, June term, 1937, no. 6492, in the sum of $5,313, of which no part has been paid.

[395]*3954. On August 31, 1935, the fair, reasonable, and market value of premises 402 S. Water Street and 10 Pine Street was substantially less than the amount of plaintiff’s claim against defendant, and remains so now.

5. Prior to August 31, 1935, defendant Luigi Infante possessed a 45 percent interest in a copartnership consisting of himself and his brothers Giovanni Infante and Dominic Infante, known as Infante Brothers, which was engaged in the paper stock business at 333 S. Water Street, in the City of Philadelphia, State of Pennsylvania.

6. On and prior to August 31,1935, Luigi Infante was indebted to plaintiff Goldie Takiff as above stated. In addition, he was subject to a contingent liability to another person arising out of a suit in trespass for death by wrongful act; subsequent to August 31, 1935, judgment was entered in the said suit in the amount of $3,000 of which no part has been paid. On or prior to August 31, 1935, Luigi Infante was further obligated on a bond secured by a mortgage on premises 333 S. Water Street.

7. Defendant Jane Infante, daughter of defendant Luigi Infante, on and prior to August 31,1935, was employed by said partnership in the capacity of bookkeeper, and as such was familiar with and had knowledge of the debts and obligations of the partnership and the debts and obligations of her father, Luigi Infante, to the complainant Goldie Takiff and to his other creditors.

8 On or about August 31,1935, the aforesaid partnership was dissolved, and in the dissolution N. Richard Giannini acted as trustee for and on behalf of defendant Luigi Infante and his copartners.

9. On or about August 31,1935, a firm was registered under the name of Louis Paper Stock Company,. with respondent Jane Infante as nominal owner, and entered into business in the premises formerly occupied by the said copartnership.

[396]*39610. In November 1935, the said Giannini transferred title to certain trucks and equipment to the Louis Paper Stock Company in consideration of the payment of $516.

11. At the time of the dissolution and transfer of this part of the partnership assets, defendant Luigi Infante was insolvent, and still is save for his interest in the Louis Paper Stock Company.

12. The Louis Paper Stock Company now conducts the same .type of business as that conducted by Infante Brothers prior to August 31,1935, with substantially the same customers and at the same premises.

13. Defendant Luigi Infante is the active manager of the Louis Paper Stock Company and is better acquainted with its running than is Jane Infante.

14. The financial return to Luigi Infante from the Louis Paper Stock Company is $75 per week, approximately one half of which he receives in cash, the other half being paid by check to his current creditors.

15. The financial return to Jane Infante from the Louis Paper Stock Company was $630 in 1936 and $1,-500 in 1937. Her weekly earnings at the conclusion of her employment by the partnership in August 1935, were $22.50.

16. Defendant Jane Infante has made no capital contribution to Louis Paper Stock Company and all and any loans negotiated by Louis Paper Stock Company have been to and on behalf of the defendant Luigi Infante, and it is understood between Luigi Infante and Jane Infante that Luigi Infante is to be ultimately liable therefor.

17. Luigi Infante is the real owner of the Louis Paper Stock Company, and defendant Jane Infante is merely the nominal owner of said business, participating in it in the capacity of a bookkeeper in her father’s employ.

18. The acquisition of part of the assets of the former copartnership by Louis Paper Stock Company and the registration of the said business and its continued opera[397]*397tion in the name of Jane Infante were and are in pursuance of a conspiracy between defendants Jane Infante and her father Luigi Infante, to conceal the true ownership of Louis Paper Stock Company and to defraud, hinder, and delay the creditors of Luigi Infante.

Discussion

The evidence here, when taken in its entirety, convinces me that the purported ownership of the Louis Paper Stock Company by Jane Infante is fictitious, and that the real owner thereof is, and has always been, her father, defendant Luigi Infante.

It may be true that the tangible assets transferred formally to Jane for the sum of $516 were worth no more, and I know that transactions involving parent and child are not thereby rendered fraudulent: Varsity B. & L. Assn. v. Ankele et al., 117 Pa. Superior Ct. 45, 53 (1935).

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Bluebook (online)
34 Pa. D. & C. 393, 1938 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 247, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/takiff-v-infante-pactcomplphilad-1938.