Thomson v. Hester

55 Miss. 656
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedApril 15, 1878
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 55 Miss. 656 (Thomson v. Hester) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Thomson v. Hester, 55 Miss. 656 (Mich. 1878).

Opinions

Chalmers, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

On March 20, 1869, William Hester, being insolvent, and intending to prefer certain creditors, conveyed to L. K. Barber, by a conveyance absolute upon its face, and for the. nominal consideration of $31,000, all the property of which he was possessed, consisting of a plantation in Hinds County and another in Madison, with all the personal property on each, embracing large numbers of horses, cattle, etc., together with an undivided interest in large bodies of wild land in Adams, Yazoo, and Sunflower Counties in this state, and in the parish of East Feliciana, Louisiana.

The conveyance was made in payment and satisfaction of a debt of $3,000 due to Barber, who was the brother-in-law of the grantor, and of a debt of $8,000 due to Marshal J. Smith, his commission merchant and confidential friend, and of an alleged debt of $19,900 due to the wife of the grantor.

Barber at once made conveyances to Smith and Mrs. Hester of such undivided interests in the property as were agreed upon between the parties.

The original deed to Barber was recorded; those executed by him to Smith and Mrs. Hester were not. The debts due by Hester to Smith and Barber were genuine; that alleged to be due to his wife was grossly exaggerated, and the conveyance to her was, therefore, in great part, voluntary and fraudulent.

Appellant, Thomson, at this time, held a note against Hester, upon which there was due about $6,000, and which Hester [666]*666seems to have regarded as an unjust debt, because given, in part, for slaves.

In October, 1869, Hester told Thomson that he (Hester) was broke ; that he intended to confess judgments in favor of Barber and Smith; and that the only chance for him .(Thomson) to realize anything on his claim was through an arrangement with Smith, who held a note against Thomson, upon which was due about $1,480. Acting upon the suggestion, Thomson, Smith, and Hester made an arrangement by which Smith surrendered his note for $1,480 against Thomson, and the latter transferred to Smith the note for $6,000 which he held against Hester. To partly compensate Thomson for the great loss sustained in the exchange, Hester executed to Thomson a new note for $1,400.

The day after the $6,000 note of ^tester was transferred to Smith, Hester confessed j udgment on it in favor of Smith, and execution thereon having been levied upon the Hinds-county lands formerly owned by Hester, the same were bought in at the sale by Barber, in behalf of himself and Smith and Mrs. Hester, as he testifies, though the deed was made to him alone. By subsequent arrangements and conveyances between the parties Smith became the exclusive owner of the Madison-county plantation and personalty, Barber of the Louisiana lands, and Mrs. Hester of the Hinds-county plantation and personalty, and of the wild lands in other counties in this state. Several years afterwards Thomson recovered judgment against Hester on the note for $1,400 executed to him at the time of, or a few days after, the exchange of notes above detailed. Wulla-bona return having been had thereon, he filed this bill to attack and vacate the several conveyances by which Mrs. Hester had become the owner of the property in Hinds County, and to subject the same to his judgment.

It is insisted that the bill will not lie, «because the note upon which his judgment is based was given after the execution of the deeds by which the property was conveyed first to Barber and then to Mrs. Hester, and that, therefore, Thomson, not [667]*667being a pre-existing creditor, cannot attack said conveyances. We are satisfied that the note was intended to keep alive, pro tanto, the original note, in part satisfaction of which it was given ; and it is well settled that the holder of a new note given in exchange for an old one may attack a conveyance which would be fraudulent as to the old one, upon the principle that a party loses no rights by a mere change in the form of his securities. Lowry v. Fisher, 2 Bush, 74; Gardner v. Baker, 25 Iowa, 848; Causler v. Salliss, 54 Miss. 449. It is urged that the doctrine does not apply here, because the old note was transferred in its entirety to Smith, who had the right to enforce it for the full amount due upon it; so that there could not be a. right in Thomson to enforce the smaller note as constituting part of the sum due on the first one. But both Smith and Hester testify that though judgment was to be, and was, confessed on the old note for the full amount in favor of Smith, it was never intended to collect it in full. They both say that it was to be held by Smith as a security, though •exactly what it was a security for is not apparent.

But Thomson did not know this, and he was informed at the time he transferred it that judgment was to be confessed upon it. Through this confessed judgment Mrs. Hester now holds title. By his transfer Thomson must be held to have consented to all legal advantages which could inure to any purchaser or holder under the judgment, which he knew was to be confessed; and even though the s'cheme resulted in a fraud upon him, he is estopped to complain by the maxim

Volenti non fit injuria

If, therefore, Thomson actually transferred the note to Smith, he cannot now attack the use to which lie was advised the latter intended to apply it; and Mrs. Hester, as a sub-purchaser under the judgment, will be protected, by reason of such purchase, even though she paid nothing and. her original demand against her husband was fraudulent. The good title acquired under the judgment to which Thomson had consented will, as to him, cure the previous invalidities in her title. Fulton v. Woodman, 54 Miss.

[668]*668■ If, on the contrary, Smith had no real interest in the transaction, but simply lent the use of his name to enable Hester and wife to obtain title under a judgment based on an undisputed and bona-fide debt, and thereby bolster up and strengthen, as to .her, the conveyance previously derived through Barber, there is nothing to prevent Thomson from attacking such title. Repeated and careful perusals of the voluminous and complicated facts detailed in the record satisfy us that the latter theory is the true one. Though the parties protest to the contrary, we cannot but regard Smith as a mere figure-head, who permitted his name to be used for the benefit of Mrs. Hester. It is not denied that the books of his mercantile house in New Orleans demonstrate this fact, but it is said that the books were so kept by his partner in ignorance of the true nature of the transaction. It is singular that he remained in ignorance of the showing made by his books for seven or eight years, but no ignorance upon the part of the book-keeper can explain away the facts that the Thomson note for $1,480, which it is pretended was surrendered directly to Thomson, was in truth, by Smith & Co., transferred in writing to Hester, and then by Hester indorsed in blank; that forthwith Hester was charged with the exact amount of it on the books of Smith & Co., and on that same day he paid in the amount to the firm (with a slight excess) in cash, thus balancing the account and demonstrating that Smith had not lost or expended a cent’ in the matter, but had somehow become possessed of a note against Hester for $6,000 or more, upon which, the next day, a judgment was confessed.

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Bluebook (online)
55 Miss. 656, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/thomson-v-hester-miss-1878.