172 Pa. 161 | Pa. | 1896
Opinion by
The contention of the appellant in the court below was that the judgment under which the wife of the defendant claimed the bulk of the fund in court was fraudulent. The facts shown by the report of the learned auditor are that Sweeting was conducting a large business in bicycles in the city of Philadelphia for some years prior to the 28th of July, 1892. Finding himself, as he says, unable to pay his debts, he disclosed his situation to his wife and her mother who lived with them, and after a day or two of consideration an attorney was consulted. The result was that judgment notes payable one day after date were executed by Sweeting in the following order: To his wife for about twelve thousand dollars; to her mother for about eleven thousand dollars; to Ann Slover for about four thousand dollars ; to James H. Billington, the appellant, for four thousand two hundred and fifty dollars, for money borrowed some three years before. On the next day judgment was entered upon all these notes at the instance of Sweeting, and writs of fieri facias were issued and placed in the hands of the sheriff so as to secure priority in the order above named. Upon these writs the stock and personal goods of the defendant were sold and the proceeds are insufficient to pay all the writs. Billington cannot be reached if the previous writs are entitled to be paid in full. He accordingly attacked the judgments of Mrs. Sweeting, and her mother, Mrs. Munson, before the auditor, who found that only four thousand seven hundred dollars was due to Mrs. Munson, but sustained the judgment of Mrs. Sweeting for the amount named in the note. Whether his conclusion upon this question is supported by the facts found by the auditor is the
A man who is solvent may make a valid gift to his wife: Appeal of Hart, Lee & Co., 157 Pa. 200, but the fact of the gift and every element necessary to sustain the claim of a married woman as against her husband’s creditors, must be established by clear and satisfactory evidence: Wilson et al. v. Silkman, 97 Pa. 509. If the evidence of Mrs. Sweeting and her mother should be regarded as sufficient to support a finding that the Chain Company stock was given to Mrs. Sweeting and returned by her to her husband in 1880, and that he thereby became debtor to her for its value, what have we to show its value ? Sweeting was secretary of the Chain Company and had the custody of its books and papers. These have all disappeared. Nothing remains of the company. Its stock is without value. The ownership of the stock by Sweeting in the first instance, the alleged sale of it by him, the price obtained for it, depend on his uncorroborated testimony. His purpose to defraud the appellant and others of his creditors was so apparent, and his testimony was so unsatisfactory, that the auditor found it to be unworthy of credit; and he would have rejected this part of the claim but for what he characterizes as a “ very fortunate ” circumstance for her, viz, the fact that her own testimony and that of her mother support “ what is the crucial part of the case.” The crucial part of her case related to the sale of the stock and the price received for it, and upon neither of these subjects, as we understand the report of the auditor, and so much of the evidence as is before us, did either Mrs. Sweeting or Mrs. Munson profess to have any knowledge whatever. If full