231 P. 146 | Or. | 1924
Transfers of property to near relatives is looked upon with suspicion, and the burden of showing a transaction in good faith and free from fraud is upon the grantees: Clark v. Pilomath College, 99 Or. 366, 378 (193 Pac. 470, 195 Pac. 822); Stubling v. Wilson, 50 Or. 282 (90 Pac. 11, 92 Pac. 810), and cases therein cited.
The questions involved in this suit are principally questions of fact. The facts, that the grantees in the two deeds were wife and son, respectively, of the grantor; that the deeds were not placed of record more than two and one-half years after they
The appellants attempt to show that the said conveyances were not fraudulent, but were made for a valuable consideration. One cannot read the testimony in this suit without being convinced that the effect of the two conveyances is to hinder and delay, if not absolutely defeat, the collection of the indebtedness owing by the grantor at the time the deeds were made and delivered. The evidence adduced by the defendants, as to what was a valuable consideration, is very unsatisfactory. It is indefinite, uncertain and vague. The testimony of the defendant Elizabeth A. Seaweard is to the effect that when she was married to the said J. H. Seaweard she had more property than he had and that that property has always been held and managed in the name of her husband. The evidence, however, does not disclose the value of the property and inasmuch, as they were
The burden of proof was upon the defendants to show a valuable consideration. In this, the defendants have failed: 27 C. J. 500, § 164, and p. 501. In order to have a deed set aside as fraudulent, it is not necessary that the secret intent of the parties thereto was to defraud their creditors. It is sufficient if that is the effect of the transfer where such transfer is voluntary. Nor does the belief of the parties to the transfer that the grantor retains sufficient property to satisfy all his creditors validate a transfer where the transfer is not supported by a valuable consideration, if, in fact, the effect of the
The testimony of the defendants and two of his witnesses indicates very clearly that the transfers were made in anticipation of death. The transfers are very closely related to a testamentary gift, which would not take effect until after the death of the grantor. This evidence is supported by the delay in recording the deeds, the grantor having recovered at the time the deeds were recorded. The debt of the grantor had largely increased and his property decreased. The effect of the transfers, without question, would delay, if not defeat, the plaintiff in the collection of his judgment.
The appellants claim that the decree is too broad in this, that it deprives the defendant Elizabeth A. Seaweard of her interest in the S.% of N.% of NW.% of NE.1/4 of said Section 10, Twp. 18 S., R. 47 E., W. M. This 10-acre tract was conveyed to the defendants J. H. Seaweard and Elizabeth A. Seaweard as husband and wife. The decree does not deprive her of the interest conveyed to her by that deed. The decree reads that she be
“barred from any and all right, title, claim or interest in or to the said real property or any part thereof, save and except the interest she had in the” 10-acre tract “prior to the execution of said deed.”
The decree, therefore, does not deprive her of the interest that was conveyed by the deed to herself and husband and which she owned therein prior to the execution and delivery of the deed by the said J. H. Seaweard to her.
The demurrer to the complaint was properly overruled. Finding no error, the decree is affirmed.
Affirmed.