Weaver v. Neal

55 S.E. 909, 61 W. Va. 57, 1906 W. Va. LEXIS 151
West Virginia Supreme Court·Decided December 4, 1906·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

BraNNON, Judge:

R. A. Reese made a deed of trust conveying all his personal property including a stock of goods to Weaver, trustee, to secure a negotiable note made by Reese payable to J. A. Wiseman in ninety days at the Wirt County Bank. After this deed of trust had been executed R. L. Neale & Co. caused a writ of fieri facias to be levied on the stock of goods. Then Weaver, trustee, filed before the justice who issued the execution a petition under chapter 50, of the Code, section 152, setting up his title and claim under the deed of trust, and asking that the stock of goods be released from said execution, and asking that the right of property be tried. After trial before a justice the case went by appeal to the circuit court of Wirt county, where a jury was empanneled to try the case; but the court struck out the plaintiff’s evidence and directed a verdict for the defendant and rendered judgment thereon.

Counsel for Weaver endeavors to exclude the evidence on the ground that the bill of exceptions does not sufficiently incorporate it to bring it before this Court; but we think that the bill is ample to do so. It says that: “The certificate of evidence certified by John T. Harris, official stenographer of the circuit court of Wirt, county, is hereby certified, filed herewith, and made apart of this bill of exceptions.” We find the full oral evidence with a formal certificate by Harris that it is all the evidence given in the case. This clearly identifies the evidence.

The execution creditor claims that the deed of trust is fraudulent and void as to creditors, on its face. It is not [59] claimed that oral evidence proves such impeachment, but that its vice is shown by the deed. To establish this we can look only at the face of the deed of trust. Landeman v. Wilson, 29 W. Va. 702. We do not find such fraud on the face of the deed. The deed provides that the trustee sell at the maturity of the note. It cannot be said that sale under the trust is' unreasonably postponed, as it was only four days from the date of the trust to the maturity of the note. The deed contains no reservation or power to the debtor, none whatever. It does not give him power to sell, or to retain possession, or to consume, or in any wise use the property, so as to enable us, for such grounds, to stamp the deed with fraud, as in Livesay v. Beard, 22 W. Va. 585. Nor does the "deed postpone the right of the trustee to take possession until maturity of- the note, as in that case. He could take possession the moment the deed was executed. We find no provision authorizing the debtor to replenish the stock of goods. The deed does not cover ’ after acquired goods. If it did so, there might be an inference of an intent to let the debtor still have the benefit of the goods, and to waste them from creditors, as held in Shattuck v. Knight, 25 W. Va. 590, and Landeman v. Wilson, 29 Id. 702. We do not find ear marks of fraud referred to in the many cases in this Court of deeds fraudulent on their face. Bartles v. Dillon, 56 W. Va. 383, holds that a deed of trust will not be held fraudulent per se, unless its provisions plainly show that it was not made in good faith, but only as a color-able security. The only questionable feature of this deed is a provision that it is to secure any future endorsement by Wiseman of the note. The debt is an honest debt, as nobody questions, and we do not think that such a provision is a badge of fraud. This deed was good when made, and this clause does not change its character. It does not put it in the power of the debtor to postpone sale under the trust, nor does it bind Wiseman at all to make a future endorsement. The clause gave the debtor no power whatever to enforce such endorsement.

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Weaver v. Neal, 55 S.E. 909, 61 W. Va. 57, 1906 W. Va. LEXIS 151 (W. Va. 1906).

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