Thomas v. Trieber

3 Md. 11
CourtCourt of Appeals of Maryland
DecidedDecember 15, 1852
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 3 Md. 11 (Thomas v. Trieber) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Thomas v. Trieber, 3 Md. 11 (Md. 1852).

Opinion

Tuck, J.,

delivered the opinion of this court.

The opinion on this appeal has been delayed at the request of counsel in the case of Sangston vs. Gaither, in which some of the questions presented by this record were said to arise. The court were disposed to accede to this request, in view of the contrariety of decisions in other courts in which assignments for the benefit of creditors had been contested, and, especially, because of the embarrassing fact, that although the subject oí such assignments had been three times before [26]*26the Court of Appeals of Maryland, the ultimate judgment was rendered by three of the judges only, the others being of the opposite opinion, by which the question then under review was left, as it was in the first of these cases, in equilibrio. Having carefully examined the authorities referred to in both cases, with the general principles applicable to the subject, we proceed to express our views upon the exceptions in this cause.

John Gamber being indebted to the appellee, an attachment was issued and levied on certain personal property, which had been conveyed, with other personal and a large real estate in Virginia, to the appellants, as trustees. This deed was executed in Virginia, where the grantor and the trustees resided, and where all the property then was. In the progress of the cause the appellants came in, by petition, and claimed to be the owners of the property on which the attachment had been laid, in virtue of this conveyance. The plaintiff proved his debt, that Gamber was a non-resident, that he was insolvent at the date of the deed, and that he thereby conveyed all his property. The court below decided that the deed was void as against creditors, on account of the reservations in favor of the grantor.

This conveyance recites Gamber’s indebtedness to Samuel Brady, and to other parties of the third part named in the deed, and his desire to secure the payment of said debts to Brady, and to such of the olher creditors named in the deed as should sign the same. The property is conveyed to the appellants in trust, for the following purposes:

1st. To permit the grantor to hold possession of all the property, real, personal and mixed, to take the rents, issues and profits, and to possess and enjoy the use and benefits thereof, paying no rent therefor, until a sale should be effected according to the- provisions of the deed, the grantor giving bond, with security, for the delivery of the property at the day of sale, which bond was to be held on the trusts declared in reference to the property.

2nd. That if the grantor should not pay to Brady, in three [27]*27semi-annual payments, the debt due to him, and to such of the other parties as should sign the deed, in four semi-annual payments, the amounts due them, and all costs and commission, the trustee should sell the properly, and (if the proceeds of sale proved sufficient,) pay Peabody & Co., then Brady, and such other of the parties of the third part as should sign the deed, and the balance, if any, to pay over to the grantor himself. There is no time limited within which these creditors are required to signify their assent by signing the deed.

3rd. If the proceeds of sale should prove insufficient for the above purposes, then to pay .a certain claim of Peabody & Co., and to distribute the residue ratably to Brady, and such other of the creditors named in the deed as might sign the same.

4th. The deed to be void if Gamber should pay all the debts mentioned in the deed, with costs, commission, &c., &c.

5th. The creditors named in the deed, by signing the same, covenanted and agreed with Gamber to extend to him a credit of six, twelve, eighteen and twenty-four months on their respective claims, subject to the power to sell in case default should be made in paying these instalments as they might fall due.

It will be observed that this deed does not stipulate for releases from the creditors who might sign. In this respect it differs from the instruments which were the subjects of controversy in the cases of McCall vs. Hinkley, 4 Gill, 128; Albert and Wife, vs. Winn and Ross, 7 Gill, 446, and Kettlewell vs. Stewart, 8 Gill, 472, to which allusion has been made. But the grantor reserves to himself the possession and enjoyment of all the property for at least six, perhaps for twenty-four months, and, indeed, for an indefinite time, if the trustees should not think proper to sell, and none of the preferred creditors should require the sale to be made. He also reserves to himself the surplus, after payment of the claims of the assenting creditors, and of Brady, (whose assent is not required,) to the exclusion of all other creditors, who can in no event obtain any part of their claims by the provisions of [28]*28the deed, and these benefits, confined as they are to such of the named creditors as might assent, are extended to them only on the condition that they will, while the debtor is using and enjoying the property, grant further time on their claims against him.

Various questions have arisen in the .courts of the several States upon the construction and effect of assignments of this description. The contest, however, has been carried on, principally, between those who affirm and those who deny the validity of preferential deeds requiring releases, as one class of such instruments has been designated in this court. 8 Gill, 506, With whatever force of argument or weight of authority these have been sustained, there is little difference among the authorities, as to the necessity of the debtor’s conveying all his property for the benefit of his creditors. And although there are cases in which deeds, reserving a part of the property or the whole, for- a limited time, for the use pf the grantor or his family, have been held to be valid, yet much the greater number of decisions have condemned them as fraudulent and void. Those in which partial assignments have been thus stigmatized, have but asserted a plain principle of justice — that a debtor, confessedly unable to pay his debts, when he asks to have his future earnings released from liability, must accompany this appeal to the humanity of his creditors, by a tender of all the property that he has, and that if he wishes to retain any portion for the benefit of-himself or family, it must be done with the assent of all those who have a just and legal claim upon it; because if a debtor can rightfully coerce his creditor into releases of this kind, it must be on the principle that the statute of Elizabeth does not operate on one’s time and future labor, but only devotes that which is the subject of assignment — his property — to the payment of his debts, and protects that only from being placed beyond the reach of his creditors by fraudulent conveyances; and that, therefore, while exercising his undoubted right to prefer some creditors to all the others, by paying them in full or by assigning property in satisfaction of their claims, he may so [29]*29discriminate as to protect his future earnings, provided he parts with all that he has. 5 Rawle, 221.

It is not our purpose to examine the decisions on this point. The subject has been elaborately discussed in most of the States, and in none with greater ability than in the late Court of Appeals.

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Bluebook (online)
3 Md. 11, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/thomas-v-trieber-md-1852.