52 Barb. 26 | N.Y. Sup. Ct. | 1868
This case comes before us upon the report of the referee, merely, without the evidence taken before him. The plaintiff’s judgment was for services rendered by him, as attorney of the defendant Gilman, in defending two slander suits brought against the latter. The retainer was on the 4th of August, 1862, and the services ended at the • circuit in October, 1863, when the plaintiff’s complaint in each action was dismissed, and judgment ordered for the defendants therein for costs. The property which, the plaintiff seeks to reach and have subjected to his judgment, was conveyed by the defendant Gilman to the defendant Thurston, on the 7th of August, 1862, three days after the plaintiff’s retainer to defend the said actions. The consideration of the conveyance, as the referee finds, was one dollar, and the object and intention of it was to defeat the claims of the plaintiffs in" the slander suits, should they be able to establish any claims. Gilman had at the time no other "creditors, and his sole design was to get his property out of the way of any judgments which might possibly be
But there is another ground on which I think the plaintiff is clearly precluded from claiming to reach this property, and subject it to his judgment. The defendant Gilman was his client, and he was informed of what had been done, and of the intent of the transaction, very soon after the relation was formed. He made no objection, and asked for no security, hut continued the service, as he had begun it, with full knowledge of the whole transaction, and of its character. Under such circumstances, I think, he must be held to have assented to it, and to have consented to go on, and trust the defendant, upon the basis of that property being out of his hands, and under the ownership and control of another. I do not think a creditor, who has trusted his debtor after being fully informed by the latter that he has put his property out of his hands, by a conveyance, valid as between him and his grantee, though voidable as to existing creditors, should ever be allowed to come into court, and claim that such conveyance was fraudulent and void, as to him, on account of such indebtedness. As to such creditor, a conveyance of that kind would not be fraudulent, in any sense, and could not, on that ground, be avoided. I am not aware that this precise point has ever arisen and been adjudged, hut, upon general principles, it seems to me exceedingly clear. ■
The judgment must, therefore, be affirmed.
S $, Smith, Johnson and J. C. Smith, Justices.]